Programmed Lives: Fourth Stage
by Sanae
Summary: The new generation of Gunma racers is finally growing up and they have every intention of perpetuating the legend.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Initial D, Shigeno-sensei and the Kodansha Publishing Company do.

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Prologue_

Shibukawa – December 2020

They were late, as usual, making Akito think for the umpteenth time this year that he really could not wait to get his driving license. Three more years, he thought disconsolately. Three more years and he'd turn eighteen and then, oh baby, then he'd be, at long last, an independent man: he would have a car to call his own.

'Akito!' he heard his father shout from the living room, 'Kyosuke and Seisuke are here.'

'About bloody time,' he muttered to himself as he raced downstairs where he found his two best friends waiting for him at the house's entrance.

'Hey!' Kyosuke said waving at him.

'Let's go!' Akito replied.

'Yeah, hello to you too,' Seisuke said sarcastically.

'Boys, don't bring him home too late,' Natsuki said.

'Don't worry Natsuki-san, he'll be back right on time,' Kyosuke said with his most responsible sounding voice.

'And drive carefully,' Natsuki added as the three teenagers were leaving the house.

Takumi noticed with a smirk the fact that none of them even tried to reassure his wife. He, of course, understood that poor Natsuki was asking for an impossible thing. Two Takahashi and a Fujiwara in a sports car meant only one thing: speed, very high speed.

Thankfully, Takumi also knew that Kyosuke had been driving ever since he'd learned how to walk and his car, a yellow brand new Mazda RZ-1 SF3Z, had been thoroughly checked by a highly competent team of mechanics: Ryosuke, Fumihiro and Matsumoto.

He looked through the window at the yellow car as it left their lane and he couldn't help but to admire its design: inspired on the last generation of the SE3P, it was a lot more streamlined than its predecessor and had an aggressive looking set of headlights which made it look like a panther. A very wild panther, considering its engine could produce up to two hundred and fifty-five hp and went from naught to one hundred kilometres an hour in just under six seconds. Those were the figures for the non-tuned version of course; Kyosuke's car probably was a lot more powerful than that.

'Don't worry, they'll be fine,' Takumi said seeing his wife's concerned frown.

'I know, it's just that…'

'He's growing up very fast, isn't he?' Takumi said, finishing the sentence for her. It was true, Akito had grown a lot since the last spring and was now almost as tall as his father, having left Natsuki behind a long time before.

'I just hope Haruko doesn't grow up quite as fast as that,' Natsuki said looking at their six year old daughter who was busy watching some cartoon on TV. Takumi just passed his arm around her small shoulders and, walking together, they sat down with the little girl.

Meanwhile, Kyosuke was having fun testing the limits of his new car.

'I'm so jealous,' Akito commented busy admiring the interior of Kyosuke's pride and joy.

'I'm so uncomfortable,' Seisuke said, speaking from the very cramped back seat of the car.

'Hey, don't complain. At least this car has four seats, not like Uncle Keisuke's FD which only has two,' Kyosuke said referring to one of the Takahashi family's treasures, the other one, of course, being his father's FC. One day, Kyosuke hoped he'd be allowed to drive one of the two vehicles.

'You call these things seats?' Seisuke said injecting a large dose of disbelief in his tone of voice.

'Honestly Seisuke, I can't wait till you get your driving license so you get your own car,' Kyosuke said.

'It's me who can't wait!' Seisuke exclaimed.

'Well, you only have what, three more months or less?' Akito said, 'Imagine how I feel knowing that I still have another three years to go.'

'Shit, that's true,' Seisuke said, 'alright Akito, you win: your life sucks more than mine.'

'Thanks,' Akito said smiling sarcastically.

'Er…Akito, by the way…how are things with Ryoko?' Kyosuke said and Akito started feeling rather hot.

'What do you mean?' he managed to ask, feigning as much indifference as possible.

'You mean to tell us that you've progressed zero with her?' Seisuke asked sounding startled.

'Look, guys, I've said this before, I…I just don't…'

Both Kyosuke and Seisuke sighed heavily before the elder brother said:

'Akito, if you don't hurry up to ask her out, someone will steal her away from you.'

'Yeah, she gets asked out by all sorts of guys at least once a week,' Seisuke said.

'Even after we've spread the rumour that any guy who goes out with her will get the crap beaten out of him by her father,' Kyosuke added.

'That's not a rumour, that's true,' Akito said, 'which is one of the reasons why I don't know if it's such a good idea.'

'You're scared of Uncle Keisuke?' Kyosuke said incredulously.

'Who isn't?' Akito asked back.

'Our mother, for instance,' Seisuke replied.

'Yeah, but she's a very brave woman,' Akito, who had a great deal of respect for his best friends' mother, said.

'Anyway, nice try but you're not distracting us from our point: ask Ryoko out. It'll be Christmas in two weeks time and she'd love to spend that day with you,' Kyosuke said.

'Do you really think so?' Akito said sounding rather dubious.

'Aniki, leave it, he's totally clueless,' Seisuke said.

'Yeah, let's hurry up and get to the track soon, at least behind the wheel he doesn't act like a total moron,' Kyosuke said as he pressed the accelerator a bit further down so his Mazda would pick up even more speed.

_To be continued…_


	2. Chapter One

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter One_

It had to be one of the very few times when Akito had actually started studying voluntarily for it usually was Natsuki who had to force him to do his homework. He was currently trying to understand a particularly complicated formula that he was supposed to use to solve a problem when he heard the front door's bell buzzing.

'Crap,' he muttered closing the maths' book and walking out of his room and down the stairs.

Akito found that his father was already walking towards the door.

'Dad, I didn't know you were home,' he said surprised to see his father there for Akito thought that his old man was at the Takahashi Motorsports Centre where he worked as an instructor. Takumi was about to say something to his son as he opened the front door when, instead, he exclaimed:

'What the…'

'Takumi-san, do you like it?' Kyosuke said smiling.

'What do your parents think of this?' Takumi asked frowning.

'Ah, well…I don't know really, they haven't seen it yet,' Kyosuke said passing his fingers through the spikes formed with his newly bleached hair.

Takumi looked at the almost nineteen year old and, patting him on the shoulder, he said:

'It's been nice knowing you.'

'Yeah, your mother's going to go ballistic,' Akito said frowning, looking almost as worried as his father.

'Yeah…that's a possibility,' Kyosuke said his smile beginning to falter.

'Anyway, do come in,' Takumi said trying to recover from the shock of seeing Ryosuke's oldest, and supposedly most responsible son, with his hair bleached in perfect Keisuke-like style.

'No, it's okay, I've come to pick Akito up. Are you ready to go?' Kyosuke asked.

'Isn't it a bit early?' Akito replied while looking at his wristwatch.

'Nope, I have a surprise for you,' Kyosuke said mysteriously.

'What? Your brother's dyed his hair red?' Takumi asked sarcastically.

'Not yet but, since he wants to get a red car, maybe he'll do it,' Kyosuke said sounding totally serious about it.

'Yeah, I heard having hair the colour of one's car is in fashion these days, isn't it?' Takumi asked.

'Yep,' Akito said nodding.

'Well, I'm lucky that wasn't fashionable in my days, for I don't think I'd look good with white and black hair,' Takumi commented.

'Well, Dad, you're slowly getting there,' Akito said cheekily.

'What? I do not have white hairs! I'm only thirty nine!' Takumi said getting annoyed at his son only to realise, as usual a tad too late, that his son was just teasing him.

'Get the heck out of here,' he said smiling and, shaking his head, he walked back to the living room.

'It's so cool your Dad's home so often, he's a great guy,' Kyosuke said driving out of the Fujiwara's lane.

'I know,' Akito said for he really was very proud of his old man, 'but your father's pretty awesome too. '

'Yeah, I just wish he'd spent more time with us but he's too busy with the hospitals,' Kyosuke said looking rather serious and Akito, not knowing what to say to that, he asked:

'Where's Seisuke?'

'Waiting for us,' Kyosuke said.

'Where?' Akito insisted.

'It's a surprise,' Kyosuke replied smiling again.

'Oh, come on, don't give me that bullshit, tell me already!' Akito exclaimed.

'Patience, my very young friend,' Kyosuke said with an almost insufferable air of superiority.

'Young my foot! Who got beaten by me just the other day?' Akito challenged.

'Who's not going to get his driving license for at least another three years?' Kyosuke countered knowing perfectly well that he'd touched a very sensitive fibre.

'Oh, be quiet,' Akito said pouting while looking through the car's window, more to avoid seeing Kyosuke's smirk than to admire the view.

'Anyway, you'll like this so stop looking so sulky,' Kyosuke said after a brief silence.

Finally, Akito found out where they were heading: the private school where Seisuke attended his last year of high school and, more importantly, where Ryoko was doing her last year of junior high.

'This is your school,' Akito said pointing out the obvious.

Kyosuke nodded.

'What are we doing here?' Akito asked.

'Just wait for bit longer,' Kyosuke said making Akito want to punch him for being so goddamn secretive.

They parked the RZ-1 at the students' car park and, after getting out of it, Akito followed his older friend all the way to the school's sports centre.

Akito looked around himself checking out the school's facilities. It wasn't the first time he visited his friends' school but he was still stunned to see how extremely well equipped it was. This was one of the differences between a private school for upper class kids and the state-run one he attended. Not that he minded his school, knowing his father had gone to that same one made him like it.

'Come on, it's this way,' Kyosuke said and suddenly, Akito realised where they were heading: the school's full size ice skating rink.

'What the heck?'

'What?' Kyosuke asked turning round.

'You can't be serious.'

'Why not?' Kyosuke asked.

'Because if Ryoko finds out I'm here she's going to get mad at me,' Akito replied.

'Nah, if she finds out you're here, she's going to be very happy,' Kyosuke said, sounding very sure of himself.

'Oh crap!' Akito said running to hide behind a nearby column.

'What are you doing?' a startled Kyosuke asked and, looking ahead, he saw his cousin, with all the girls from the ice skating club, walking towards the ice rink's main entrance.

'Kyosuke, she's going to think I'm stalking her,' Akito whispered from behind the column after seeing Ryoko entering the building.

'Don't be stupid, she's not going to think that. Come on,' Kyosuke said grabbing Akito by the sleeve of his coat.

'Alright, alright,' Akito said and, giving up, decided to follow Kyosuke hoping Ryoko wouldn't notice he was there.

Entering the ice rink Akito saw Seisuke sitting at the grandstand amongst a lot of other guys and a few girls.

'What are they doing in here?' Akito whispered at Seisuke.

'The same thing we are: look,' he replied pointing at the girls as some of them started stretching.

Akito's gaze focused on the gorgeous looking fifteen year old who had had his heart ever since he first set his eyes on her, ten long years ago. She had to be the best looking girl Akito had ever seen: long and shiny dark hair, tied up in a pretty pony tail, beautiful and delicate features and a body that made Akito want to run to have a cold shower. After a long while staring at her doing her warming up exercises, Akito heard a guy sitting nearby say:

'Hey, she's starting!'

Akito saw that they were referring to the fact that Ryoko had stepped onto the ice and, slowly at first, faster later, started picking up speed so she could do a few moves.

He was absolutely mesmerised seeing the grace with which she executed every single one of her movements. Akito found himself holding his breath every time he saw her jumping up in the air to do an axle.

'Wow, that's Ryoko-senpai, from the third year, isn't she?' one of the few female spectators asked.

'Yeah, she's been made team captain this year and now I can see why,' another one, sitting next to her, said.

'Yeah, she's the best in the team. I heard she can do a triple axle.'

'Wow, that's so cool! Did you know that Misugi-senpai asked her out last week?'

'Really? What did she say?'

'She rejected him politely, as she always does. Apparently she likes a guy from another school, or so she says every time someone confesses to her.'

Akito was shocked hearing this so, keeping his voice as low as possible, he asked Seisuke:

'Is that true? She says that?'

'Yep, I actually heard her say that when one of my classmates went to ask her out,' Seisuke said.

'Three guesses who this guy from another school is,' Kyosuke added giving Akito a knowing look.

'Guys, let's not start again,' Akito said pleadingly.

'Oh well, don't come to us crying when she gets tired of waiting for you,' Seisuke said.

'What about you? Why don't you focus on your love life instead of on my lack of it,' Akito asked feeling rather annoyed at his friends' constant nagging.

'Oh, Akito, he doesn't need to focus on that, he's in big enough trouble as it is,' Kyosuke said.

'Why?' Akito said.

'What's the name of your latest trouble?' Kyosuke asked his younger brother.

'Er…Midori? Or was it Momoko?' Seisuke said frowning as if he were trying to concentrate.

'See? I rest my case,' Kyosuke said to Akito then, turning to his brother, he said, 'It's Momoko, by the way, Midori was last month's one…'

'Ah, thanks,' Seisuke said smiling cheekily.

'What about you? Any love interest?' Akito asked Kyosuke.

'No, he's too busy studying for his finals and recruiting talents for our street racing team,' Seisuke said.

'You make me sound like if I were as bad as Dad,' Kyosuke said frowning and Akito noticed that this was the second time that day that Kyosuke had criticised his father so openly. He didn't think there was anything wrong with his friend's relationship with his father but, just in case, he made himself a mental note to ask Kyosuke about it later.

'Wow, look at that,' Seisuke said pointing at Ryoko as she executed a double axle.

'Hello there Seisuke-kun, Takahashi-senpai,' a feminine voice said coming out of nowhere.

'Kaori-chan, what a surprise!' Seisuke said smiling at the newcomer.

'Hello Kurosawa,' Kyosuke added.

'Who is this?' the girl, who looked to be about Seisuke's own age, asked pointing at Akito.

'This is our friend Fujiwara Akito,' Seisuke replied.

'You're not from this school, are you?' Kaori asked.

'Nope,' Akito said shaking his head, fighting with all his might so he wouldn't blush, 'I'm a third year at the Shibukawa Junior High.'

'Oh, I see, well, Seisuke-kun, I'll see you in class tomorrow,' she said smiling sweetly.

'Yeah, see you then,' Seisuke said returning the smile.

'I see you're back to being friends with her,' Kyosuke commented.

'Yeah,' Seisuke just said.

'Did you have a fight?' Akito asked out of curiosity.

'Kind of,' Seisuke said and, clearly trying to avoid any more questions, he said, 'hey, Ryoko's looking this way.'

Akito saw her skating towards them and making a gesture so the three of them would get down from where their seats were to go and speak to her.

'Hi! I didn't know you'd be here,' she said smiling very sweetly at Akito.

'Yeah, well, I didn't know myself I'd be coming here,' he replied.

'I hope you come to see our exhibition on Christmas Eve,' she said.

'Yeah, your mother told mine and we'll all be coming,' Akito replied.

'Great,' she said and then she looked down at the ice between her skates.

'Yeah,' Akito said swallowing while raking his brain trying to come up with something interesting to say.

'Well, I've got to go, I'm captain this year and I can't be seen slacking off, can I?' she said.

'No, I guess you can't,' Akito said getting rather upset with himself for not managing to think straight when she was near him.

'You'll see him tomorrow night,' Kyosuke said.

'Really?' Akito asked voicing the very question Ryoko seemed to be about to ask.

'Yeah, I've just decided you're coming to our place for dinner tomorrow night,' Kyosuke said.

'Brilliant! I'll see you tomorrow then!' Ryoko said her face positively lit up with happiness as she skated away from them to join her team-mates.

'Geez Akito, you really need to start doing things for yourself,' Kyosuke complained.

'Yeah, like tomorrow. We're not letting you out of the house till you ask her out, got it?' Seisuke added.

'Guys, you really want me dead, don't you?' Akito asked getting slightly desperate.

'No, it's just that we'd rather see her going out with you than not with any of the losers that seem to populate this freaking school,' Kyosuke said.

'But…'

'No buts: you like her, she likes you, and you're going to ask her out tomorrow, got it?' Seisuke said.

Akito, seeing that he could not beat the two Takahashi brothers when they stood united, finally nodded and said:

'I'll try, I promise.'

'Good, now let's go for a spin in my car,' Kyosuke said.

_To be continued…_


	3. Chapter Two

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter Two_

If Kyosuke was nervous he was hiding it remarkably well, his brother Seisuke thought as the two teenagers parked Kyosuke's Mazda inside the Takahashi's massive garage. Climbing out of the car Seisuke looked at his brother and said:

'Aniki…'

'Let's go in,' Kyosuke said walking away from the RZ-1. Seisuke shook his head and followed him through the door which connected the garage with the main house.

'Oh My God!' their aunt Kyoko exclaimed seeing Kyosuke's new hair style.

'What do you think? Pretty cool, huh?' Kyosuke said smiling at his aunt.

'Wow…I mean…what are your parents going to say?' Kyoko asked her nephew while frowning in almost the same way Takumi had done after seeing Kyosuke's newly bleached hair.

'Ah, are they home?' Kyosuke asked incredulously.

'No, er…they're…'

'Yeah, at a hospital's meeting or something like that, right?' Kyosuke said bitterly then, as though as he was talking to himself, he added, 'it'd be a goddamn miracle if they were home long enough to notice it.'

'Kyosuke, that's not fair,' Kyoko said trying to defend her sister and brother in law.

'Who said life was fair?' Kyosuke replied with a mirthless chuckle then, before his aunt had the time to reply, he said, 'I'm going to my room.'

Then he walked away from Kyoko and Seisuke leaving them both sporting an identical worried look on their faces.

'He's had a bad day,' Seisuke lied trying to justify his brother's dry attitude.

'He's had a bad month, more like,' Kyoko said very worried about the sudden change on her oldest nephew's personality.

'Well…er…'

'I was going out, got to go and pick Ryoko up from the ice rink,' Kyoko said interrupting Seisuke.

'Alright, I guess I'll just go to my room too,' Seisuke said.

'Yes, I'll make dinner as soon as I come back, your parents are probably going to eat at the hospital,' Kyoko said as she grabbed her handbag and her coat.

'Alright, see you later,' Seisuke said nodding.

While she drove to her daughter's school, Kyoko called her husband using the onboard computer her new car came equipped with.

'Keisuke here,' she heard him answer.

'Darling, sorry to call you when you're working but I've got to tell you something,' she said.

'What's up?' Keisuke asked sounding worried at Kyoko's serious tone of voice.

'Kyosuke's dyed his hair blonde,' she replied.

'Oh no, that's bad,' Keisuke said, sounding a lot more worried than Kyoko had expected.

'It's funny you'd say that,' she said chuckling as she thought of the hundreds of times she had told him that at his forty two years of age, he should start considering letting his hair go back to its naturally dark colour.

'Kyoko, you don't get it,' Keisuke said, then, before she could get offended, he elaborated, 'now I like my hair blonde because I'm used to see it this way but, when I dyed it for the first time, I did it as an act of defiance against my father. I knew that it would piss him off big time and that's why I did it.'

'Are you saying Kyosuke's done it to piss Ryosuke off?' Kyoko asked frowning even more.

'I hope not but, I'm pretty sure that something's wrong with Kyosuke and I don't think Aniki has noticed it. I think we'll need to tell him.'

'Do you think it's wise getting involved?' Kyoko asked.

'Definitely, look, if we don't, Kyosuke may end up getting in serious trouble and I don't know you, but I'd like to spare him what I went through at his age,' Keisuke said.

'Alright, well, should I call Akiko or will you call your brother yourself?'

'I'll call Aniki, don't worry about it anymore,' Keisuke said.

'Alright, I'm driving to Ryoko's school as we speak, come home now so we can all have dinner together, okay?'

'Sure, I'm just finishing off a few things. See you later.'

Kyoko, even though her husband had told him not to do so, could not help but to be worried about Kyosuke. He used to be such as sweet kid and, even as a young teenager, he'd always been the most responsible of the two brothers, always looking after both Seisuke and Ryoko and even Akito. Then, for some reason and in the past few months, his attitude had grown more and more hostile towards his parents. She hoped Keisuke was right and that they were still in time to do something.

The next day, as Kyosuke stepped into his house with Akito following him, he found the original set of Takahashi brothers with their wives all sitting on the two sofas of the main living room.

'Wow, I'm impressed, what's this? A war council?' Kyosuke asked with a sarcastic smirk.

Ryosuke and Akiko, having been warned about their son's new hair colour weren't too shocked to see the bleached spikes that had replaced the short, straight jet black hair Kyosuke used to have. What did surprise them was to hear the bitterness in the young man's voice.

'We need to talk,' Ryosuke said, adopting his most serious tone of voice.

'Er…we'll just go,' Seisuke said pulling Akito by his arm and gesturing to his cousin Ryoko so she would follow them too.

'Please sit down,' Akiko asked her son.

'No,' Kyosuke replied with such a cold tone of voice that made both his parents flinch.

'Kyosuke,' Ryosuke said warningly.

'It's fine Ryosuke, if he wants to stand up, let him be,' Akiko said and, the way she was looking at her son made Keisuke shiver and think that, had he been Kyosuke, he would have probably started running away from the woman as fast as he could.

'What's the meaning of this?' Ryosuke said pointing at his son's hair.

'Oh, it's in fashion,' Kyosuke replied with a very flat tone of voice.

'Really?' Akiko said now getting up from the couch.

'How come you're both home? Uncle Keisuke called you, didn't he?' Kyosuke asked ignoring his mother's question and startling all four adults in the process.

'As a matter of fact, he did,' Ryosuke said making Kyosuke let out a dry chuckle.

'Of course…if it wasn't for him, you'd hardly notice you've got two kids,' Kyosuke said looking at his father accusingly.

'What did you say?' Ryosuke asked with his eyes wide with shock.

'Dad, come on, don't look so surprised! I've been trying to speak to you for ages but you're never home!' he exclaimed finally letting his hurt show on his otherwise handsome face.

Keisuke and Kyoko felt sorry for Ryosuke seeing the completely devastated expression on his face, almost identical to that of Akiko.

'Kyosuke…' Akiko said walking towards her son.

'Look, I know you two are busy with work and all, but come on, Seisuke and I spend more time with Uncle Keisuke and Aunt Kyoko than we do with you two,' Kyosuke said taking a step backwards as to put some more space between him and his mother.

'I'm sorry,' Ryosuke said finally getting up from the couch too.

'You know what bothers me the most?' he said now facing both his parents and as Akiko and Ryosuke shook their heads, he added, 'that I think I've disappointed you because, unlike Seisuke, I didn't want to follow your steps and become a doctor too.'

'What? No, that's so not true,' Akiko hurried to say.

'Son, you know you can do whatever you want with your life, we don't want to pressure you into anything,' Ryosuke said.

'Precisely,' Kyosuke, 'you don't seem to give a damn about what we do! You're lucky that Seisuke's always wanted to be a doctor like you but, you didn't even bother asking me which career I would choose when I applied for college last year, it's as if you don't care about what I do with my life.'

'That's not true,' Akiko repeated, 'Kyosuke, we just want you to do whatever you want with your life.'

'Yes, your mother and I never had a say about what we were going to do with our lives, that's why we didn't want to impose anything on you two,' Ryosuke explained.

'Yeah, well, some guidance would have been great, you know? I had to decide everything by myself and I wasn't even sure I was doing the right thing,' Kyosuke said still sounding pretty upset.

'Again, I'm sorry about that,' Ryosuke said putting a hand on his son's shoulder, realising, for the first time, that the young man was now almost as tall as he was, 'you've grown so much, son.'

'I'm glad you've noticed,' Kyosuke said with still a trace of sarcasm in his voice.

'I'm sorry too,' Akiko said lifting her hand to cup Kyosuke's left cheek, 'you do know that we love you, don't you?'

'Yeah,' Kyosuke said now looking down at his mother and seeing her anxious expression made him regret his burst of anger.

'We're here now, so if you want, we can all talk,' Ryosuke suggested pointing at the sofa.

Meanwhile, Akito was beginning to wonder where in the heck Seisuke was for it had been a good ten minutes since he'd left him and Ryoko in her room to, apparently, go to the bathroom.

'I can't believe you still have this penguin,' Akito said, giving his back to her and touching the soft toy he'd given her for her sixth birthday.

'Of course I have it. I sleep with it every night,' she said using what Akito considered an incredibly sexy tone of voice.

He swallowed and, as he turned round to face her, he saw her standing with her back against the door, pressing it closed with it. Then, and as Akito was starting to feel rather panicky, he saw her as she slowly turned the key, effectively locking the door up.

'Ryoko, what are you doing?' he asked with a very shaky voice.

'Nothing,' she said as she walked up to him.

'Er…Ryoko…'

Akito forced himself to keep breathing for he was starting to hyperventilate.

'Akito, just shut up,' she said and, closing the gap between the two, she got on her tiptoes placing her hand behind Akito's neck, she then pulled him down towards her and kissed him.

The boy heard a thousand alarm bells blaring in his head at the same time: what in the heck did she think she was doing?

'Ryoko, your father is downstairs,' he whispered breathlessly as he tried to get some space between him and the girl he'd been in love with since forever.

'So?' she said as if that was just an insignificant detail.

'If he finds us here, doing this…I'm dead,' Akito nervously said thinking that he was pointing out the very obvious.

'Maybe,' she just said as she proceeded to push him towards a wall.

'Ryoko, please no,' Akito said trying to get away from her. Unfortunately she refused to listen to reason and soon he found himself unwilling to move. His body simply stopped paying attention to his head.

'Akito, I know you like me and, I happen to like you too so, this is just normal,' she said as she kissed him again.

At that precise moment, Akito's brain stopped functioning and, surrendering to the inevitable, he decided that if these were going to be the last minutes of his life, he might at least enjoy them as much as possible. He heard a soft giggle coming from Ryoko as she noticed that he was kissing her back.

Seisuke heard her as he approached his cousin's bedroom door and, smiling to himself, he muttered:

'About bloody time.'

Then he decided to go back downstairs to see how the family meeting was going and as he arrived there he saw that his brother was now sitting between their parents and the three of them were discussing about what Kyosuke wanted to do once he finished his degree while Uncle Keisuke and Aunt Kyoko just listened to the whole thing.

'Hey,' he said joining them, 'Aniki, I take you told them about your plans?'

'Yes, he did,' Ryosuke said to his youngest son.

'What do you guys think?' Seisuke asked.

'We think it's a great idea, he's always liked helping the guys fix up the cars at the Centre,' Ryosuke replied.

'See? I told you they wouldn't mind if you became an automotive engineer,' Seisuke said to his brother.

'Yeah, well, there are more than enough doctors in this family,' Keisuke said with a cheerful chuckle.

'What's wrong with being a doctor?' Akiko asked turning sharply to look at her brother-in-law.

'Absolutely nothing,' Keisuke hurried to say using Kyoko as a shield against his sister-in-law.

They all laughed at that scene and Seisuke was glad to see that, once again, peace seemed to have returned to his family.

'What about your hair? Are you going to keep it that way?' Seisuke asked his brother.

'Yeah, I kind of like it,' Kyosuke said patting his bleached hair, 'it matches my car too,' he added.

'Oh well, it could be worse, you could have got a tattoo,' Akiko said giving up.

'Mum, that's an idea,' Kyosuke commented sounding all too serious.

'Don't even dream of it!' Akiko exclaimed warningly.

'Aniki was just kidding, Mum, lighten up!' Seisuke said smiling as he passed an arm around his mother's shoulders.

'Yeah, I'll lighten up: the laser I'll use to personally remove any tattoo that any of you two may even consider getting done,' Akiko said with a very scary looking smile.

'Mum, we got it, loud and clear: no tattoos,' Kyosuke said trying his best to reassure her.

'In any case, from now on, we'll come home earlier too,' Ryosuke said speaking to Seisuke.

'Good, maybe you can come to the Centre for a spin with us, hey Dad?' Seisuke said.

'I said to your brother that next weekend, I'll spend the whole Sunday with you there, we'll take the cars from the Centre and maybe even have a quick race around the track.'

'Really? Wow!' Seisuke said with his face brightening up.

'If it doesn't snow, that is,' Akiko said but both her sons were so happy at the prospect of spending an entire day with their father that they just seemed to ignore her comment.

'Where are Ryoko and Akito?' Kyoko asked suddenly, having just realised that the two other teenagers weren't there.

Seisuke exchanged a quick but panicked look with his older brother.

'Oh no! I'm killing him! He's so dead!' Keisuke exclaimed jumping up from the sofa and running out of the room.

_To be continued…_


	4. Chapter Three

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter Three_

Akito had completely lost the notion of both time and space and by the time his senses started noticing the loud banging on the door, he realised that his body was entangled around that of Ryoko and his hand was very close to a place he'd never even dreamed of touching before.

'Oh, that's my father,' she whispered and those three little words made Akito jump far enough to probably beat the current jumping Olympic record.

'Crap, crap, crap,' he muttered as he tried to tuck his t-shirt back into his trousers while looking around for his long lost shirt.

'OPEN THIS BLOODY DOOR!' they heard Keisuke's roar from the outside.

Ryoko was trying to get her long hair back into a pony tail as she rushed to the door and, as she unlocked it, a completely enraged Keisuke stepped into the room. Akito stole a quick glance at the window, seriously contemplating suicide as a more honourable and probably less painful way of dying.

'Daddy, wait!' Ryoko exclaimed as Keisuke started walking towards a terrified looking Akito then, seeing her words weren't working, she grasped her father's arm with both hands, 'Daddy stop!'

Meanwhile, the rest of the Takahashi family had reached the room, probably fearing for Akito's bodily integrity.

'Uncle Keisuke…' Kyosuke started.

'Dad, if you do anything to him I won't speak to you ever again!' Ryoko said.

Only this seemed to make Keisuke return to reality.

'Ryoko…'

'Dad, I'm serious,' the girl said and the way she was standing up to her father was a clear proof that she had inherited all of her father's courage, and probably all of his bad temper too.

'What has he done to you?' Keisuke asked and that made Ryoko turn red.

'Nothing,' she said and that was true, at least technically speaking, for she had done most of it herself.

'So, what's the deal? Are you seeing each other?' Keisuke asked as he fought with himself to control his fury.

'Yes,' she said and Akito's eyes widened even more than they already were.

Keisuke sat down on his daughter's bed putting his head on his hands and his elbows on his knees.

'Darling,' Kyoko started as she walked into the room towards her husband.

'Uncle Keisuke, this is the best that could happen. Let's face it, we've known Akito for most of our lives, isn't it better that Ryoko dates him rather than one of her classmates?' Kyosuke asked.

Keisuke looked at his nephew, then at Ryoko and, at long last, he turned his gaze back to Akito who looked absolutely petrified and too afraid to even allow himself to breathe.

'Darling, Kyosuke's right,' Kyoko said.

'Yeah, I vote for Akito too,' Seisuke said smiling at his friend while putting both of his thumbs up.

Without having stopped glaring at Akito, Keisuke said:

'If you hurt her, even remotely, you're dead. I won't care if I've known your father since before he even started dating your mother.'

'Yes, sir,' Akito managed to say with a strangled sounding voice.

'If you make her cry, I'll kill you, understood?'

'Yes, sir,' Akito repeated nodding.

'And no more locking yourselves up in the room.'

Akito shook his head.

'Alright, you've got my permission to date her,' Keisuke finally said and Akito swallowed visibly before muttering:

'Thank you, sir.'

'Guys, let's go and eat something, okay?' Akiko suggested seeing that the storm seemed to be over, at least in part.

'I've never been any more scared in my whole life,' Akito commented as Kyosuke was driving him back home.

'Well, he was a gangster when he was younger,' Seisuke said, speaking from the back seat of the car.

'I'm actually proud of you, the way you were trembling I thought you were about to faint,' Kyosuke commented.

'I wasn't about to faint, I did feel like puking though,' Akito said very honestly.

'You really didn't do anything, did you?' Seisuke asked.

'Hey! That's none of your business!' Akito protested.

'They didn't,' Kyosuke said laughing making Akito feel rather annoyed.

'In any case, well done mate, you now officially are our dear baby cousin's boyfriend,' Seisuke said patting Akito's shoulder.

'Yeah,' he muttered more to himself than to his two best friends.

'So, what's next?' Kyosuke asked.

'We're going to the cinema this weekend,' Akito said.

'Ah, take her to watch some romantic comedy, she's nuts about them,' Seisuke suggested.

'I know, hey, I've known her for ten and a half years: I know very well what she likes,' Akito said.

'Which is why we've always thought you were the perfect guy for her,' Kyosuke said.

'Anyway, what's the deal with you and your parents?' Akito asked, more than eager to remove the focus of the conversation off his and Ryoko's newborn relationship.

It worked, because Kyosuke spent the rest of the ride explaining the whole thing to Akito who, once more, felt very proud of having the father he had. Maybe Fujiwara Takumi wasn't the smartest guy alive but in Akito's opinion, he was a great father and he always found the time to listen to what Akito had to tell him and encouraging an open communication between the two of them.

This was the reason why the minute the Takahashi brothers dropped him by his house, Akito walked into the Fujiwara's living room and with a huge smile, he announced:

'Dad, Mum, I'm going to start seeing Ryoko.'

Akito almost laughed at his old man seeing him do a double take.

'Ryoko, as in Takahashi Ryoko?' Natsuki asked.

'Yep,' Akito replied, his smile getting even wider.

'Does Keisuke know about this?' Takumi asked his son.

'Yep, he's given us his permission,' Akito replied, deciding to leave out Keisuke's death threat which had allowed for such agreement to take place.

'Oh, I see.'

'I'm happy for you,' Natsuki said getting up from the couch to go and hug her adopted son who gave her a quick peck on her forehead.

'Yeah, life's great,' Akito said happily then, walking out of the living room, he shouted, 'good night!'

Takumi and Natsuki looked at each other and they started laughing as they heard Akito whistling while he climbed the stairs.

Akito woke up very early on Sunday morning so he could get ready to walk to the station. Not being able to drive there meant that if he was to make it to Maebashi before ten in the morning, he needed to catch the eight twenty five train.

'Do you want a lift?' Takumi asked his son.

'Nope, don't worry,' Akito said.

'Maybe you two can agree to see each other the days I go to Maebashi so I can give you a lift there and back,' Takumi suggested.

'Yeah, that'd be great,' Akito said grabbing his coat and checking that he had his wallet with him.

'Need any money?' Takumi asked.

'No, Dad, honestly, I'm okay,' Akito replied.

'Okay, well, have fun,' Takumi said as Natsuki was coming out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee in her hands.

'You're leaving without getting any breakfast?' she asked.

'Yes, guys, stop fussing! It's my first date, not my first day of school,' Akito said as he put his shoes on.

'I can't believe he's going on his first date already,' Takumi commented once Akito had gone, thinking that he had been three years older than his son the first time he'd been out with a girl, the same one who was now standing next to him, looking as beautiful as she did then.

Akito's train got to Maebashi station ten minutes before ten o'clock and he rushed to the square in front of the station's building where he and Ryoko had agreed they'd meet.

Not seeing her there, he decided to wait for her sitting down on a nearby bench taking that time to organise his ideas and select several topics of conversation so he would have plenty of things to talk about.

'Hey,' he heard her say as she walked towards him.

'Hey!' Akito said getting up and just seeing her wearing a dark brown miniskirt with a pair of black kitten heel shoes which made her legs look fabulous, made him forget all about the conversations he had so carefully planned out in his head.

'You look, wow, you look amazing,' he managed to say feeling underdressed even though he was wearing his best pair of jeans, one of the nicest jumpers he had and the coat Natsuki had bought for him in her last shopping trip in Tokyo.

'Thanks,' she said, 'you look good too.'

'Let's go?' he said offering her his arm.

'Yes,' she said smiling happily as she took his arm with both her hands, snuggling herself to him.

'It's cold, isn't it?' he said. Oh my gosh, I'm talking about the weather! Akito thought to himself disconsolately.

'Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it snowed, Kyosuke and Seisuke will be very angry if it does.'

'Ah yeah, that's right, your uncle was going to take them to the Centre,' Akito said feeling eternally grateful to Ryoko for bringing up a topic he felt very confident in: motor racing.

They spent all the way to the cinema talking about it and, after they watched a romantic comedy starring some American actress whose name Akito couldn't remember, he asked her to tell about the upcoming ice skating exhibition.

'Oh, it's just that to celebrate that we've qualified for the inter-high championships, we've organised a special show for Christmas.'

'That's right, you're going to Tokyo next month,' Akito said.

'Yeah, I'm actually pretty excited: I'm going to compete with the best ice skaters of the nation, at least at middle school level!'

'I'd love to go and see you,' Akito commented.

'You can come, you know? Tokyo isn't that far away,' she said sounding rather hopeful.

'I know, I was born there, remember? In any case, I'll ask Dad if I can go.'

'It'd be great if you could, I'd love to have my boyfriend supporting me.'

'Boyfriend…' Akito said.

'Well, that's what you are, isn't it?' Ryoko asked him frowning.

'Yeah, of course,' he said nodding.

'Good,' she said and, after that, she gave him a quick peck on his lips.

'You know, it'd be fantastic if you achieved your dreams,' he said.

'Yeah, well, I don't think I'll ever manage to win an Olympic gold medal like Arakawa Shizuka did in 2006,' she said.

'Why not? Ryoko, you're only fifteen, she was a lot older than that when she won that medal, wasn't she?'

'Yeah, she was twenty four,' she replied.

'See? Look, my grandfather always says that there's nothing impossible…'

'…only challenges that are harder than others,' she finished for him then, seeing his puzzled expression, she explained, 'that's what Dad always says too. He's probably learned it from your grandfather.'

'Yeah, that crazy old man has taught us all loads of things,' he commented smiling.

'Your grandfather's great, from the few times I've seen him, I can tell that he must be a lot of fun,' Ryoko said.

'He is,' Akito said feeling even prouder of his family.

After an extraordinarily successful first date Akito walked Ryoko back home and while he was on the train back to Shibukawa, he decided that having a girlfriend was great. Especially when said girlfriend was someone as fantastic as Ryoko: not only she was gorgeous but she was also very funny and Akito found that he could talk to her about almost everything.

To be able to get rid of the psychological block that had made him stutter every single time he'd been anywhere near her had been an immensely liberating experience for Akito. It helped knowing that his feelings were fully returned by her and that he no longer risked his life by being in the same room with her. Just as long as they left the door wide open!

The day of the ice skating exhibition, Akito sat with his parents, his sister and the entire Takahashi family as they got ready to see Ryoko give the best of herself.

'Mum, I want to do that,' little Haruko suddenly said seeing the girls as they started their warming up on the ice.

'You want to do ice skating?' Natsuki asked her daughter.

'Yep,' the girl, an exact copy of Natsuki at her age, said.

'What about karting? I thought you wanted to do that,' Takumi said.

'I can drive karts too, can't I?' Haruko asked looking at her father.

'Sure you can,' Takumi replied smiling at his little girl.

'Shush, she's starting her exercise,' Akito said pointing at the ice rink where his girlfriend was preparing herself to start her exhibition.

They lowered the lights and, after the speaker introduced her, making Kyoko's eyes get shinier than usual, Ryoko started skating at the rhythm of the classical music they were playing for her.

'She's fantastic,' Akiko whispered to her sister-in-law who could only bring herself to nod due to how very emotional she was feeling.

'She said she was going to do that triple axle thing,' Seisuke commented and just as he said that, they saw her picking up speed and with feline agility, Ryoko jumped up in the air and turned once, twice and, as her body was taking the third turn, gravity seemed to pull her back down.

It all happened in a question of nanoseconds: her skate's blade touched the ice, Ryoko slipped on it sideways losing control of the skate and as she fell down on the hard and cold surface, her knee seemed to bend in a very unnatural-looking angle.

After that, Ryoko remained there, lying on the ice, apparently unable to move.

_To be continued…_


	5. Chapter Four

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter Four_

Even before Akito's brain registered what was going on, he saw both Ryosuke and Akiko get up from their seats and run downstairs as Ryoko's coach skated towards where the girl was.

Only then, Akito realised the magnitude of what had happened. He got up too and, following Ryoko's parents, he got to the ice rink's edge where both Ryosuke and Akiko were already waiting for their niece.

'Put her down here,' Ryosuke ordered to the coach who was carrying Ryoko in his arms.

'I'll go and get the doctor,' he said.

'We are doctors,' Ryosuke said pointing himself and his wife.

Akiko, down on her knees, started examining Ryoko's leg. Having coordinated the emergency departments in the Takahashi Arakawa Medical Group for the past ten years, Akiko was probably the best person to handle this kind of situations.

'Baby, there aren't any broken bones but we'll need to do an MRI scan to be sure,' she said talking to Ryoko in her most soothing voice.

'Auntie, it hurts so much,' Ryoko whimpered.

'I know it does, we're going to take you to the hospital right this instant so we can take care of you properly,' Akiko said and Ryoko just nodded, then turning to her husband, Akiko said, 'Ryosuke, go and get the car, bring it as close as possible to the front door. Keisuke, help me carry Ryoko. Kyoko, follow us with your car.'

'What do I do?' a very worried Akito asked.

'You're coming with me,' Kyoko replied.

'No! I want him to come with me,' Ryoko said.

'Alright, let's move,' Ryosuke said.

Half an hour later, Akiko came out from one of the examination rooms at the Arakawa Hospital.

'What's wrong with her?' a very anxious looking Keisuke asked her.

Akiko took a deep breath before saying:

'Like I said, there are no broken bones, unfortunately, she's torn the anterior cruciate ligament. Thankfully, it should be fairly easy to reconstruct and that's what we're going to do in a few minutes, however, she's going to have to remain immobile for quite a while and then she'll have to do some rehabilitation.'

'Rehabilitation?' Keisuke asked, remembering the time when he had to go through that too, after breaking his foot during a training session with his racing team, and how little he had liked it.

'Keisuke, your brother's already preparing everything for the arthroscopy, which will be done using only a local anaesthetic, if you want to speak to Ryoko now, you still have a few minutes before we take her upstairs,' Akiko said.

'Will she be able to skate again?' Kyoko asked her sister-in-law.

'Kyoko, sweetie, first things first, we need to make sure she regains the full use of her knee. After that, we'll see what happens, okay?'

'Does she know that?' Keisuke asked.

'Not yet but I think you should tell her the truth if she asks you about it,' Akiko said.

When Keisuke and Kyoko entered the room where their Ryoko was, they found Akito, who had not left his girlfriend's side since the accident, sitting next to her and holding her hand.

'Ryoko, your parents are here,' the boy said, 'do you want me to go?'

'No, don't leave me,' Ryoko said then, looking away from both her parents and Akito, she started crying.

'Baby,' Kyoko said rushing to her daughter's side.

'It's over Mum, I'll never be able to skate again, will I?' Ryoko said facing her mother.

'That's not true,' Keisuke said, 'look at me: I broke my ankle and I went back to racing, didn't I?'

'It's not the same thing,' Ryoko said still sobbing.

Akito didn't really know what to say for he felt very much like an intruder in what was supposed to be a family thing. He was spared by Ryosuke who, coming into the room, said:

'We're ready for you when you are.'

'Aniki, are you going to do the operation yourself?' Keisuke asked.

'Yes,' Ryosuke said then, turning to Ryoko, he smiled and said, 'you trust me, don't you?'

The girl nodded giving a brief but very brave smile to her uncle.

'Thank you,' Kyoko said putting her hand on her brother-in-law's arm.

An hour later, Kyoko and Keisuke, with Akito looking even more anxious than Ryoko's parents, were all sitting down at the waiting room with Kyosuke and Seisuke and the Fujiwara.

'Dad, you really don't need to be here,' Akito said seeing that Haruko had fallen asleep in his arms.

'Don't worry, we're fine,' Takumi said for he was worried about Ryoko too.

Akito was going to reply to that when Ryosuke entered the room followed by his wife Akiko.

'How did it go?' Keisuke said jumping up from his chair.

'She's fine, we've given her some mild sedatives so she doesn't feel the pain when the anaesthetic wears off,' Ryosuke said, 'however, we'd like to keep her here overnight, just in case.'

'It's just the standard procedure,' Akiko explained seeing the horrified look on Kyoko's face.

'Before we sedated her, she asked us to let Akito sit by her side, if that's okay with you two,' Ryosuke said speaking to his younger brother and Kyoko.

'What, but…' Keisuke started.

'Yes, it's fine,' Kyoko said.

Akito remained immobile on his chair not really knowing what to do.

'Come with me, this way,' Akiko said talking to the boy.

'Er…' he said looking first at Ryoko's father, then at his own.

Takumi gave him a curt nod and said:

'Go, we'll just stay here.'

Akito followed Ryoko's aunt all the way to the same room where the girl first had been and opening the door, he saw her there apparently sleeping.

'She'll wake up soon,' Akiko explained.

'Okay and thank you for everything,' Akito said giving her a deep bow.

Akiko laughed softly before saying:

'Sweetie, first of all, it's my job, and secondly, she's my niece.'

'Yes, of course,' he said getting up.

'But you're very welcome,' Akiko said offering him her kindest smile.

Once he was left alone, Akito sat on a chair by Ryoko's bed and for a while, he just watched her sleep. Even now, at a hospital and very far from being at her best, Ryoko still looked absolutely gorgeous. Taking her hand in his, he kissed it.

'I love you,' he whispered to her not sure whether she could hear him.

A few minutes later and just as Akito was beginning to get a little uncomfortable on his chair, he saw her opening her eyes.

'Hey,' he said smiling at her.

'Hey,' she replied with just a croaky whisper.

'Do you want some water?' he said getting up to get a glass.

'Yeah, thanks,' she whispered again and taking the drink from him, she started sipping the liquid.

'It looks like you're going to spend Christmas Eve in here,' Akito said.

'What? Really?' she asked and he nodded.

'But, I'll stay here too, if you want,' he said.

'How romantic: we get to spend our first Christmas together at a hospital,' Ryoko said frowning.

'I don't care where I am, if I'm with you,' he said, starting to feel rather hot on his face.

She looked at him and, smiling in her uniquely sweet way, she said:

'Thanks.'

Akito was about to kiss her when the door opened to let in Ryoko's parents. Once again, Akito found himself beating long jump records.

'She's awake,' he said pointing out the extremely obvious.

'Hi Mum, hi Dad,' Ryoko said looking mildly amused seeing Akito's get so nervous just because her father was there.

'Hey sweetie, how are you?' Kyoko said taking the chair Akito had been using up to then.

'It's a bit painful but I'm okay, I think,' Ryoko said.

'Your aunt and uncle say the operation was a huge success and that you shouldn't have too many problems regaining full mobility of the knee,' Keisuke said, using, more or less, the same words his brother had used earlier on.

'Okay, I understand,' Ryoko said still smiling.

'Akito, your father's going to go home now, if you…'

'No Dad, I want him to stay here,' Ryoko said, her smile being replaced by a panicked look.

'But honey, he's got to go home,' Kyoko said.

'No! I don't want him to go!' she said, almost crying.

'It's okay, I can stay,' Akito hurried to say taking Ryoko's hand once again.

'Okay, well, I guess it's fine,' Kyoko said while Keisuke looked at Akito in a very weird way.

Akito woke up very early the following day noticing two things: one, someone, probably Kyoko, had put a blanket over him after he'd fallen asleep on the room's small couch. Two, it was the first time in his life he didn't wake up at home on Christmas Day.

He got up to see that Kyoko was still awake, looking at her sleeping daughter.

'Merry Christmas, I guess,' he said to Ryoko's mother.

'Merry Christmas, sweetie,' she said and Akito noticed how tired she looked.

'Kyoko-san, why don't you get some sleep? I'll take over here,' he suggested.

'Go and get something to eat for breakfast first, my husband should be at the cafeteria as we speak,' she said.

'No, it's…' Akito started saying, terrified at the prospect of being left alone with Ryoko's father.

'Akito, my husband may look very scary but, deep down, he's a softy.'

'Very deep down,' Akito said before he could stop himself. Kyoko laughed causing for Ryoko to wake up.

'Sorry baby, I didn't mean to wake you up,' Kyoko said.

'No, it's fine,' Ryoko said yawning then, seeing Akito there, she smiled and said, 'Merry Christmas.'

'Merry Christmas to you too,' he said taking her hand.

'Oh wow! It's snowing!' Ryoko said pointing at the window where, indeed, the first flakes of snow were beginning to fall.

A few hours later, and after Ryosuke had taken a look at his niece's knee deciding that with an appropriate, protective bandage, she was okay to go, he allowed his younger brother to take Ryoko back home.

'MERRY CHRISTMAS!' Seisuke and Kyosuke shouted seeing their cousin enter the home in her father's arms.

'Hey guys,' Ryoko said smiling at her cousins.

'Your mates have been pestering us all morning with phone calls, are you trying to be more popular than we are?' Seisuke complained the minute Ryoko was sitting on the sofa.

'Yeah, you should really call Yayoi-chan back, she's called like four million times,' Kyosuke added.

'Yayoi is that cute friend of yours, isn't she?' Seisuke asked trying, and failing, to look as innocent as possible.

'Seisuke, I'm warning you, stay away from my best friend,' Ryoko said frowning at her cousin.

'What? I was just curious...'

'Yeah, right,' Ryoko said then as Kyosuke and Akito started laughing, she joined them too.

Kyoko, seeing the whole scene, exchanged a look with her sister-in-law.

'I'm glad to see she's in such high spirits,' she said as Akiko and herself prepared the lunch.

'Yes, I was worried she'd feel down because she's going to be out of next month's competition but, the way she's laughing with the boys, I think we were worried for no reason,' Akiko said.

'I'm really grateful you and Ryosuke took care of things for us,' Kyoko said.

'Don't even mention it, like I said to Akito, I'm a doctor and, I'm her aunt, I care about her wellbeing as much as you and Keisuke do.'

'Well, thanks anyway,' Kyoko said.

'Where's Keisuke?' Akiko asked.

'He's gone to have a quick shower, I think he's feeling a bit left out,' Kyoko said.

'Why is that?'

'Well, Ryoko asked for Akito to be by her side, she didn't ask for her father,' Kyoko explained.

'Ah, yes, I can see that Keisuke probably didn't take that too well,' Akiko said.

'Well, I guess our baby's growing up, I think the sooner we start thinking of her as a young woman and not the little girl she used to be, the less we'll suffer,' Kyoko said.

'Easier said than done,' Akiko replied, 'I still have trouble thinking that Kyosuke's got his driving license and that he's already in college.'

'Yeah, I can't believe he's going to be nineteen in ten days time,' Kyoko commented.

After they all had lunch, at the living room so Ryoko wouldn't have to get up from the sofa, Seisuke, seeing that the snow was settling rather nicely, said:

'Hey, let's go to the centre and take a spin with the new Vera.'

'Yeah, excellent idea,' Kyosuke said, 'I haven't driven it yet.'

'It's the new model Toyota have just released, isn't it?' Akito asked getting excited.

'Yeah, it's the best 4WD in its category, Uncle Keisuke just got a few of them for the Centre,' Kyosuke explained.

'Er…guys…I…' Akito said looking at Ryoko.

'Do you want to go?' she asked him.

'Well, er…I'd just be for a couple of hours,' he told her for he really was dying to get behind the wheel, especially since he wanted to practice his driving skills on the snow.

'If you want to go, go,' she said.

'Okay, thanks!' he said and just as he turned round, unnoticed by anyone in the whole room, Ryoko bit her lower lip trying to keep herself from showing her disappointment.

_To be continued…_


	6. Chapter Five

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter Five_

For a normal person, driving on freshly settled snow this fast would have been extremely dangerous, if not downright suicidal. If to that one added the fact that the three Toyota Vera V40A were actually drifting through each one of the corners of the main circuit at the Takahashi Motorsports Centre, then one could not help but to think that the three drivers were either insane or had a psychotic death wish.

For Akito and his two best friends, letting the car skid on the snow was loads of fun. All three of them loved pushing the car to the point where they almost lost control of it, only to get it back to where they wanted it to go.

It helped that the V40A, inspired on the design of the Celica Sports M, was an AWD which handled itself wonderfully well on all sorts of surfaces and weather conditions, clearly proving that it was a worthy successor of a car which had made history in the rallying championships. When its first version came out in 2012, the V40A was a welcome addition to the Toyota range ever since the brand had suffered from bad publicity due to several recalls on a few of their star models like the Prius and the Scion tC.

Since this wasn't a real race, Akito wasn't too bothered about having to follow Seisuke and Kyosuke as they chased each other. He was actually happy to be able to observe the driving style of the two Takahashi brothers, especially Kyosuke's who, having had his driving license for almost a year, was quickly outclassing both Seisuke and Akito.

'Geez, I'm so jealous,' he said to himself then, probably distracted by the thought, Akito pressed the accelerator a tad too much making the front of his car get dangerously close to that of Seisuke's.

'Crap,' Akito said braking so suddenly that his car glided sideways making it spin out the track, leaving the car's front just a hair away from the circuit's outer wall.

Just great! Akito thought getting very angry at himself: he'd never hear the end of it now.

'What in the heck did you do?' Kyosuke said with a smirk on his lips as the three boys climbed out of their cars at the end of their driving session.

'Aniki, let's be nice to him, he's probably thinking of Ryoko,' Seisuke said also smirking.

'No, that's not it,' Akito said glad that the intense cold had already made his cheeks rather rosy so his blushing would not be quite so obvious.

'Yeah, maybe you should challenge him for a re-match,' Kyosuke suggested to his brother.

'Nah, I can't race against a lovesick man, it'd be too easy,' Seisuke said shaking his head while still smirking in a way that made Akito want to smack him.

He was still trying to find an appropriate reply when his mobile started ringing.

'Hello?' Akito said answering it.

'Where are you?' he heard his father ask.

'I'm at the Centre with Kyosuke and Seisuke,'

'Do you think you could make time to join your family for Christmas?' Takumi said with more than a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

'Yeah, sure, sorry.'

'Okay, your grandfather's here too, so hurry up,' Takumi said.

'Sure,' Akito repeated then he pressed the button to finish the call.

'What's up?' Seisuke asked.

'Nothing, my father wants me to go home for dinner.'

'Ah, yeah, well, it's Christmas after all,' Kyosuke said.

'I guess, I'll have to go now,' Akito said.

'What about Ryoko?' Kyosuke asked.

'Crap…'

'Yeah, it's hard having a girlfriend, isn't it?' Seisuke said making his brother snort.

'Come on, I'll get you home,' Kyosuke said, 'we'll tell Ryoko for you.'

'Okay, I'll probably call her later,' Akito said.

'Okay, now let's go,' Kyosuke replied.

About an hour later, Akito arrived home to find that his family was busy opening the Christmas presents.

'Merry Christmas, son,' Takumi said seeing him coming into the living room.

'Sorry Akito, but Haruko could not wait for you any longer,' Natsuki said apologetically.

'It's alright, what did you get?' Akito asked sitting on the floor next to his baby sister.

'These!' the almost seven year old said showing her big brother a pair of brand new ice skates.

'But, Dad,' Akito said looking at his father with a disbelieving expression on his face.

'Yeah, I know, your sister doesn't seem to care about hurting herself. In fact, she wanted the skates so badly I had to go and buy them this morning,' Takumi explained.

'How is Ryoko doing?' Natsuki asked.

'She's already home so, I think she's much better.' Akito replied.

'I'm happy to hear that. This is yours, by the way,' Natsuki said giving Akito a box decorated with loads of little red ribbons.

Akito unwrapped his present and, opening the box he gasped again.

'You like it?' Natsuki said looking at him expectantly.

'Mum…Dad…I'm…'

'He likes it,' Bunta said smirking.

'He better, his mother spent ages embroidering it,' Takumi said talking to his father.

Akito stood up so he could admire his brand new racing suit better. It copied the design of his father's old one but, instead of Takahashi Racing, it just had a huge 'A. Fujiwara' embroidered across the upper section of the back with a smaller version of it on the front of the belt. There were also many really cool looking patches, all racing themed, sawn onto the chest and the sleeves of the suit.

'I love it! Thanks Mum!' he said giving Natsuki a quick hug.

'I'm glad you do,' Natsuki said and Takumi could have sworn that his wife was about to cry with the emotion.

'Now, you better train hard so your driving skills get anywhere as good as to deserve such a nice racing suit,' Bunta said being his usual merciless self.

'Yes Grandpa, I will,' Akito said looking so determined that it made Takumi laugh.

'Yeah laugh now, because when I break your downhill record in Mt Akina with your car, you won't be laughing so much,' Akito said smirking.

'You want to beat your old man, do you?' Bunta said looking positively amused.

'Yeah, in his dreams,' Takumi replied with an ironic smile.

'You'll see! I'll do it!' Akito said getting slightly annoyed at the two older men.

'The day you beat your father will be the day he beats me,' Bunta said.

Akito decided not to reply to that for he knew that there was no hope in hell he could win an argument against both his father and his grandfather.

'You know, it'd be great if you put this much emphasis on your studies,' Natsuki commented making Bunta and Takumi chuckle while Akito just looked all sullen.

'I want to go karting too,' Haruko suddenly announced.

'No, no, I don't think so,' Natsuki said shaking her head and looking at her daughter with a panicky expression.

'Natsuki...' Takumi started.

Taking the chance that his father and grandfather were busy trying to convince her that, in reality, karting wasn't such a dangerous sport, Akito got up so he could go to his room to call his girlfriend.

'Hello?' he heard her answer after a couple of rings.

'Hey, it's me…'

'Ah, Akito,' she said and, judging by the tone of her voice, she wasn't too happy to hear him.

'I'm sorry I couldn't come back to your place, my dad called and…'

'I know, Kyosuke told me about it,' Ryoko said interrupting him.

'How are you doing? Is your knee still painful?' Akito asked, trying to ignore the cold tone of voice she was using.

'Akito, it was painful this morning, it's still painful now, it's not like it's been ages,' she said dryly.

'Ryoko, I'm sorry for not having come back to your place,' Akito said now getting annoyed too, 'but, come on, it's Christmas and my parents wanted me to have dinner with them. That's normal, isn't it?'

The line went quiet for a bit, then, he heard her sighing and, finally, she said:

'Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, what are you doing tomorrow?'

'Well, I'm going to school and after that, I've agreed with your cousins to go to the Centre.'

'Again? You went there today!' Ryoko said.

'Yeah, well, we do go there most days…and we should take the chance that it has snowed so we can practice on it too,' Akito explained.

'When are you going to see me?' Ryoko asked.

'After we come back from the Centre?' Akito suggested.

'Alright,' Ryoko said, and, at long last, Akito noticed she didn't seem to be so upset anymore.

'I'll see you tomorrow, okay?' he said.

'Yes, I'll give you my Christmas present then,' she replied.

Ah, that's why she was so pissed off, Akito thought after they finished the call: she had a present for him and, because of the whole accident thing and the fact that he had left her to go driving with her cousins, she had not been able to give it to him. With a pang, he realised something rather important: if she wanted to give him a present, she probably expected one too. Little problem, he didn't have anything to give her.

'Crap!' he said to himself then, getting out of his room, he shouted while running down the stairs: 'MUM!'

The day after, as usual, Kyosuke and Seisuke picked him up from school with Kyosuke's car so they could drive to the centre.

'What's that?' Seisuke asked pointing at the stupidly pretty bag Akito was carrying.

'It's Ryoko's Christmas present,' Akito replied with as much nonchalance as he could muster.

Ignoring Seisuke's sardonic chuckle, Kyosuke asked:

'What is it?'

'A pair of gloves, I think. My mother got them for me,' Akito said.

'Er…Akito, a piece of friendly advice: don't tell Ryoko that,' Kyosuke said.

'Yeah, pretend you bought them yourself,' Seisuke agreed.

'Duh! I know that!' Akito said, 'how stupid do you think I am?'

The two brothers gave him a look that made Akito say:

'Okay, don't answer that.'

A few hours later the three of them were yet again onboard Kyosuke's RZ-1, this time on their way to the Takahashi's and as they entered the house where his friends lived, Akito could be heard talking to Seisuke about the V40A's excellent stability while cornering on the snow.

'Can't you three talk about anything else but cars?' they heard Ryoko say as they entered the living room where the girl was sitting on the sofa with her bandaged leg propped up on a chair.

'Er…nope,' Seisuke said throwing himself on the couch opposite to the one his cousin was using.

'Honestly Ryoko, sometimes it's hard to believe you're Uncle Keisuke's daughter,' Kyosuke said copying his younger brother.

'Yeah, are you sure you're not adopted?' Seisuke asked, clearly teasing his cousin.

'Guys, come on, drop it,' Akito defended his girlfriend as he sat next to her.

'Loser,' Seisuke mouthed looking at Akito who didn't even bother with taking offence for he knew his friend way too well.

'Here, this is for you,' Ryoko said smiling at him so sweetly that made Akito feel rather guilty for having upset her the previous day.

'Thanks, this is yours,' Akito said taking the little parcel she was handing him as he also gave her his present.

'Isn't this romantic?' they heard Seisuke ask mockingly.

'You're just jealous,' Ryoko replied as she stuck her tongue out at her cousin.

'Of what? Getting a Christmas present? Do you want to know how many I got this year?' Seisuke asked.

'Not really,' Ryoko said now looking slightly disgusted.

'Hey, these are great!' Akito said taking out of the box a pair of white leather racing gloves, 'they even go with the suit my parents have given me.'

'Oh, a pair of gloves, what a coincidence!' Seisuke commented with sarcastic enthusiasm making Ryoko look confused.

'Open your present and you'll see,' Kyosuke explained.

She did and, out of her carefully wrapped parcel, she took out a pair of black, extremely soft cashmere gloves with two little furry balls hanging from each of them.

'Akito! They're so cute!' Ryoko said caressing the gloves with the side of her face, 'they're so soft too!'

Akito silently thanked all the Gods in heaven for the fact that his mother was an ace when it came to picking presents for other girls.

'I'm glad you like them, I love my present too,' he said and they remained there, looking at each other and holding hands until, a few instants later, Seisuke said:

'Hi, Uncle Keisuke!'

Akito jumped up from the sofa looking around the room with a completely panicked expression on his face.

'Just kidding!' Seisuke said smiling while Kyosuke just burst out laughing.

'Seisuke, you do that again and you're dead,' Akito said angrily as he sat back down next to Ryoko.

'I'm sorry Akito but, you should have seen your face,' Kyosuke said biting his lip, trying to repress his mirth.

'Why don't you two go and do something like, I don't know, rope-less bungee jumping?' Ryoko suggested while glaring at her cousins.

Seisuke was about to come out with one of his usual, not so kind remarks, when Kyosuke's phone started ringing.

'Hello?' he said answering it.

Akito, Ryoko and Seisuke stared at him as he listened to whoever had called him. Seeing his expression getting increasingly serious made all of them very worried.

'Fine, I get it,' he added.

He listened to something else, then he said:

'Don't worry, I'll take care of it.'

'Aniki?' Seisuke asked looking at his older brother while frowning.

Kyosuke looked at him and, with a flat tone of voice, he said:

'It was Kazuya.'

'What did he want?'

'He said some guy from Saitama has challenged me to a race..'

_To be continued…_


	7. Chapter Six

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter Six_

It didn't take too long for the whole Takahashi family to find out about the challenge and, right at this instant, Ryosuke and Keisuke sat with their wives on the couch opposite the one where the four teenagers were sitting.

'Let me get this straight,' Keisuke said after his oldest nephew had explained the whole thing to them, 'you've been going around watching street races and spreading the word that you're looking for people to join your team?'

'Yep,' Kyosuke replied.

'Not the most orthodox way of doing things but, I guess it can work,' Ryosuke commented.

'You said this guy was from Saitama, right?' Kyoko who came from that prefecture herself.

'Yeah,' Kyosuke said.

'What was his name again?' she asked.

'Takikawa Kazuo,' Kyosuke replied and Kyoko frowned as if she were in deep thought for a bit then, getting up, she said:

'Let me make a call.'

They all watched her as she dialled a number on her mobile.

'Hi, Nobuhiko, it's me, Kyoko,' she started and, except the original set of Takahashi brothers, no one else seemed to know who Kyoko was talking to.

'Yeah, I'm great, well, my daughter, you know that I've had one, right? Yes, well, she's hurt herself ice skating and…'

She then realised that both Ryosuke and Keisuke were looking at her like if she had gone nuts.

'Er…anyway, Nobuhiko, I've called you to ask you something…'

She listened for a second, before saying:

'You're still aware of what's going on in the street racing scene in Saitama, aren't you?'

Another second went by.

'Yeah, well, someone called Takikawa Kazuo has challenged Ryosuke's oldest son to a race…'

She then stopped speaking as though as the man she was talking to had interrupted her and, the more she listened, the more worried she looked, until, at some point, she exclaimed:

'What? Are you kidding me?'

Her expression told everyone that whatever the man was saying could not have been anymore serious.

'Right, I understand. Don't worry, we won't let him race then.'

After yet another pause, Kyoko said goodbye to this Nobuhiko person then, taking her seat again, she looked at Kyosuke straight in the eye and said:

'You can't race this guy.'

'What? Why?' Kyosuke asked his aunt who then switched her gaze to look at the boy's parents.

'Ryosuke, according to Nobuhiko, this Takikawa guy has quite the reputation,' she started.

'What do you mean?' Keisuke asked his wife.

'To start with, he's six years older than Kyosuke, an ex professional racer whose career ended very soon for being, let's just say, a little less than ethical on the racetrack.'

'Hang on, I remember now,' Keisuke said, 'there was a small article about him in one of the magazines we get in the Centre.'

'And?' Kyosuke asked starting to get a bit nervous.

'Nobuhiko said that these days, he's taken it upon himself to 'welcome' any new street racer who wants to start a team in the Kanto region.'

'Care to explain what this 'welcome' involves?' Akiko asked looking a bit paler than usual.

'I'm not sure you want to hear it,' Kyoko said.

'Well, I definitely want to hear it,' Kyosuke asked having had enough of this ambiguity.

'Kyosuke, he challenges all the newbies so he can push them out of the road or, worse, down a cliff,' Kyoko finally said, 'he's already sent several racers to the hospital.'

'WHAT?' Akiko shouted then, she turned to her son and said, 'there is ABSOLUTELY no way you'll race him. Do you hear me?'

'Mum!' Kyosuke said starting to protest then, seeing his father make a gesture made him stop speaking.

'Your friend Kazuya told you this guy has specifically issued the challenge to you, is that right?'

Kyosuke nodded.

'Does he know who you are?' Ryosuke asked.

'I don't know,' Kyosuke replied, 'I don't think so, after all, Takahashi is a pretty common surname.'

'I see. Has he specified any mountain pass in particular?'

'No, according to Kazuya, he always races in the opponent's home turf,' Kyosuke explained.

'Did he specify any date?' Ryosuke asked.

'Nope, he's doesn't seem to be too fussy about the date either, Kazuya said this guy lets his rival choose practically everything.'

'What does he drive?' Keisuke asked.

'Kazuya wasn't too sure, but he thinks it's a Nissan R35,' Kyosuke replied.

'Not another freaking GT-R,' Keisuke complained.

'I think you should accept the challenge,' Ryosuke suddenly said.

'What? Are you nuts?' Akiko exclaimed as she got up from the sofa to face her husband.

'Akiko, I know this may sound crazy but, I think it's time someone teaches this guy a lesson,' Ryosuke said.

'Well, guess what? I don't want my son to be the one doing it,' Akiko replied with such a furious tone that it made Keisuke get up to get closer to his wife.

'Akiko, he won't be doing it alone. I'm going to personally see that he gets ready for this race the best possible way,' Ryosuke explained, clearly trying to calm his wife down.

'I'll help too,' Keisuke added.

'Well, if things are this way, you can count on me too,' Kyoko said.

'No!' Akiko screamed now getting definitely upset, 'I don't want my son risking his life for a stupid race!'

'Mum, I won't take that much of a risk, I promise,' Kyosuke said walking towards his mother, 'please, let me race. I won't forgive myself if I run away from my first challenge.'

'Yeah, Mum, let him race, please,' Seisuke said getting up from the sofa too.

Akiko looked up to her oldest son then, she looked down and said:

'I think I'm pretty much outnumbered here, am I not?'

'I know that my opinion probably doesn't count for much, but I'm with you Auntie,' Ryoko said earning herself a glare from both of her cousins.

'Thank you sweetheart but, I think that everyone else is against us,' Akiko said looking around herself seeing only very eager faces.

'Akiko, I swear to you that nothing will happen to Kyosuke,' Ryosuke said putting his hand on his wife's shoulder.

'Alright, fine, do whatever you want but if something does happen to him, I want him brought to the hospital as fast as possible so, just in case, you'll have an ambulance on stand-by at the bottom of the pass,' Akiko said.

'Mum…'

'Take it or leave it,' Akiko said to Kyosuke and, her expression said rather clearly that she was not open to any kind of negotiations.

'Okay, I take it,' Kyosuke said.

That same evening Kyosuke was driving Akito back home, with Seisuke taking his usual seat at the back, when Akito said:

'It's very cool that your father and uncle are going to help you out.'

'Yeah, well, I didn't say so there, because Mum would have flipped out, but I really would like to do this with as little help as possible,' Kyosuke said.

'Why?' Akito asked.

'Because if I win and they've helped me so much, it won't feel like a victory and if I lose, they will never forgive themselves and nor will I,' Kyosuke explained.

'I get it,' Akito said.

'Guys, this is just between me and you: I am a bit freaked out,' Kyosuke said.

'Why?' Seisuke asked.

'Because this is my first race, you know, my first real race, and if I lose, well…'

'Aniki, you won't lose. You've raced many times against the guys from the Centre and you win virtually every time,' Seisuke said.

'Yeah, but it's different, this is street racing, anything can happen,' Kyosuke said.

'Yeah, what will happen is that you'll win,' Akito said so firmly that Kyosuke let out a chuckle.

'With fans like you, I probably will.'

'Hey, I'm not your fan! I'm your biggest rival,' Akito said half jokingly.

'You are,' Kyosuke replied getting very serious.

'Really?' Akito said.

'Yep. How do you think we felt when we first met you? You beat the pants off Seisuke so easily that it made me almost cry. The worst part was that you'd have done the same with me if I hadn't stopped and, let's not forget that you were five freaking years old and on your second attempt ever at driving a kart,' Kyosuke said.

'Yeah, I haven't forgotten that either,' Seisuke added.

'Sorry…' Akito said.

'Don't worry, my revenge is all planned out,' Kyosuke said.

'Yeah, it is,' Seisuke said smiling in a very devilish way.

'Do I want to know?' Akito asked frowning.

'Yep, when I'll have my team formed, you know, the team we're always talking about?' he asked and seeing Akito nodding, he added, 'I'll wait till you get your driving license, then I'll challenge you to a race myself and if you don't beat me, you can kiss the membership to our team goodbye.'

'Wow, that's harsh,' Akito said, 'but it's only fair to test your drivers I guess. But what happens if I do beat you, won't it be bad for the reputation of the team?'

'Nope, because given your family's history, they'll just think it's the Fujiwara tradition,' Kyouske said with a soft laugh.

'You know, I think that Seisuke is right: you are a lot like your old man,' Akito commented.

'Yeah, well, I think both Seisuke and I have got quite a lot of him and of our uncle,' Kyosuke replied.

'Yeah, I got the best bits, he got the worst ones,' Seisuke added making Kyosuke scowl at him.

'It's a pity none of you got any of your mother's common sense,' Akito commented almost to himself.

'Do you want to walk home?' Kyosuke said looking at him.

Akito put his hands up and said:

'Just kidding! Man, where's your sense of humour?'

'With our Mum's common sense?' Seisuke suggested sarcastically.

Kyosuke was about to reply to that when, looking at the rear view mirror he saw something that made him say:

'What the hell?'

'What's wrong?' Akito asked.

'Seisuke, can you check out the car that's following us?' Kyosuke said.

Seisuke turned round on his seat and, looking through the rear window, he said:

'Fuck.'

'It's an R35, isn't it?' Kyosuke asked.

'I think so. Aniki, you don't think…'

Seisuke's question was left both incomplete and unanswered for, the next thing they knew, the dark Nissan accelerated getting as close as to graze the SF3Z's rear bumper.

'What in the hell!' Kyosuke said as he pressed the accelerator to get some distance between both cars.

'Aniki, I think it's better if we stop,' Seisuke suggested and for the first time in a long time, Akito heard the youngest of the Takahashi brothers drop his ironic tone of voice to adopt a most serious one.

'I agree,' Kyosuke said.

Akito choose to remain quiet, after all, the Mazda was Kyosuke's car, not his.

They pulled over to the side of the road and, after he'd put the hazard lights on, Kyosuke opened his side's door and climbed out of the car.

'You two, stay here,' he said.

'No way,' Seisuke said and, before his brother had time to protest, Seisuke was out of the car too. Just in case, Akito joined them as well.

'Yeah, it's just great to see how obedient you two are,' Kyosuke said sarcastically as they saw the R35 come to a stop just behind the RZ-1.

Without bothering with turning on the hazard lights, or turning off the engine, the Nissan's driver stepped out of his car and walked towards them.

'Oh, I'm sorry, I must have made a mistake,' he said.

Akito looked at him and, his first impression was that the guy looked a lot like a snake, a vicious, poisonous snake.

'Really?' Kyosuke said.

'Yeah, I was told to look for a yellow SF with a Gunma registration plate but, obviously, I got the wrong vehicle,' he said and then, pointing at Kyosuke's car, he said, 'that one there must be a school bus because it's packed with kids.'

Seisuke and Akito took a step forward, both getting ready for a fight when Kyosuke said:

'You're Takikawa Kazuo, aren't you?'

The guy looked startled for just a second recovering admirably fast:

'Who wants to know?'

'Takahashi Kyosuke, your next opponent,' Kyosuke said sounding so cool that Akito had to repress a gasp.

'Ah, so it is you,' the Takikawa guy said walking closer to Kyosuke who didn't even look concerned about having a guy taller than him and six years his senior, approaching him in such menacing manner.

'Yes,' Kyosuke replied.

'Oh, well, this is going to be even more fun than I thought,' Takikawa said, 'just set the date and the place and it'll be a pleasure to send this beauty to the scrap yard.'

Kyosuke didn't even follow the finger which was pointing at his car, instead, he said:

'We'd have to wait till the snow melts in Mt Akagi,' Kyosuke said.

'Why? Are you afraid of driving on the snow?' Takikawa said rather nastily.

'No, are you?' Kyosuke said with a very unconcerned looking smirk.

'Nope,' Takikawa replied.

'Alright then, I think the sooner we race the better: this Sunday, at ten pm?' Kyosuke said and that made Seisuke gasp.

'Sounds great, make an appointment with the doctor, you'll need it,' the guy said before turning round to walk back to his car.

'Geez, now I really want to beat him,' Kyosuke said with an angry whisper.

Akito and Seisuke silently agreed with him then Seisuke said:

'Aniki, I don't know if you've realised this but this Sunday it's your birthday.'

_To be continued…_


	8. Chapter Seven

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter Seven_

Even though it was dark and freezing cold, Seisuke and Akito stood for the third evening in a row, at the end of the Akagi course armed with a laptop and a stopwatch. Akito kept the times while Seisuke, as he'd been instructed by his father, entered the figures into the software Ryosuke had programmed himself.

'He's coming,' Seisuke said hearing the unmistakable sound of the RZ-1's rotary engine.

Akito paid his utmost attention to the moment when Kyosuke would cross the finish line so he'd register the time as accurately as possible, however, seeing the impressively precise way in which his friend was tackling the last of the corners made him almost miss that moment.

'He's getting better,' Akito said as he shown Seisuke the time recorded by the stopwatch in his hand.

'Yeah, he is, look at this,' Seisuke said showing Akito the computer's screen where a chart clearly confirmed that Kyosuke's times were progressively decreasing.

'He's going to be happy when he sees that,' Akito commented.

'I don't think so, he's still far from breaking Dad's record,' Seisuke said.

'Ah, yeah…well…' Akito said knowing all too well the feeling of having a seemingly unbeatable father.

'Anyway, I don't think that punk is going to be able to beat Aniki,' Seisuke said.

'Hey guys, how did I do?' Kyosuke asked after getting out of the car looking exhausted.

'Much better,' Akito said encouragingly.

'Yeah, take a look at this,' Seisuke said showing him the laptop.

'Brilliant, but I still have to improve a lot more,' Kyosuke said and Seisuke gave Akito a knowing look, 'let's go to the Centre, I'd like to try something there.'

'Okay, you must be tired, do you want me to drive?' Seisuke asked getting hopeful.

'Seisuke, even if I were dead, you wouldn't be allowed anywhere near the steering wheel of my car, not even when you'll have your license,' Kyosuke replied as the young man walked back to his Mazda.

'Nice try,' Akito said patting the shoulder of a miserable looking Seisuke.

As they agreed on their way there, before Kyosuke would take his car into the circuit so he could practice whichever manoeuvre he wanted to experiment with, the three boys entered the Centre's main building so they could get something warm to drink.

There, in the centre's common room, they found four men immersed in a very serious looking discussion.

'Dad, Grandpa, what are you doing here?' Akito asked seeing Takumi and Bunta there.

'I do work here, you know?' Takumi replied sarcastically.

'I know, I meant…'

'We're having a strategy meeting,' Keisuke said.

'A what?' Seisuke asked.

'The program has been sending me all the data you've entered into the laptop and, using that, we've built a virtual model and, from there, we've come up with a simulation, we're now discussing how to improve that simulation,' Ryosuke explained.

All three boys looked at Ryosuke open mouthed.

'O-okay,' Kyosuke managed to say after a while.

'Now, where's your car?' Akito's grandfather asked.

'It's parked outside,' Kyosuke replied looking a tad on the self-conscious side. Again, Akito had noticed that that was pretty much the effect his grandfather had on most people, even Ryosuke seemed to be unsure of himself when Fujiwara Bunta was around.

'Let's go and take a look,' the old man said and as if he'd just issued an order, everyone else followed him outside.

Akito observed as his grandfather started examining the SF with such meticulous care that Kyosuke started looking rather nervous.

'Ah, I see,' Bunta said as he knelt next to the front tyres, 'kid, come and take a look at this,' he added and as Ryosuke took a step forward, Bunta laughed softly and said, 'not you, your kid.'

'Sorry,' Ryosuke said stopping at mid step. He then looked at his son who, immediately, rushed to the old man's side.

'You've got to work on your braking, see what you do with your tyres?'

Kyosuke, clearly unable to see what Bunta was talking about, just swallowed and looked rather lost. Bunta sighed and, looking at Ryosuke, he said:

'Will you tell him or you want me to do it?'

'Kyosuke, I think that what Fujiwara-san is saying is that you're having problems distributing the weight of the car and you're wearing the tyres out irregularly. That's it, isn't it?' Ryosuke said.

'Yep,' Bunta said getting up with surprising agility, taking in consideration he was nearing his seventieth birthday, then, talking to Kyosuke, he said, 'pop it open.'

Kyosuke obeyed and then Bunta opened the bonnet's cover and, bending forward, he seemed to reach for something with his left hand then, he went inside the car and fiddled with its settings.

'Right, now, go to the track and drive for a few laps,' Bunta said.

'Excuse me Fujiwara-san but, what did you do?' Kyosuke asked.

'Nothing, I just deactivated the ABS,' Bunta replied as if he had just cleaned the windscreen.

'You've what?' Keisuke asked.

'I've deactivated the ABS,' Bunta repeated a bit slower as if he thought Keisuke had comprehension problems, 'I can't believe that these days you can just flip a switch and disconnect things, just like that,' the old man muttered obviously talking to himself.

'It makes sense,' Ryosuke said.

'Yeah, it does,' Takumi agreed.

'Dad, I've never driven a car without ABS,' Kyosuke protested.

'That's not true,' Bunta said, 'the karts you and the other brats drive here have no ABS.'

'Yeah, but…'

'Kyosuke, just do what Fujiwara-san says, you'll understand then,' Ryosuke said.

'They're all nuts,' Kyosuke muttered as he got into the car getting even more convinced that he really should have done all of this by himself.

However, that opinion changed drastically as he started his second lap on the track. Unlike that of Mt Akagi, the track's surface was snow free and but, in any case, controlling the car with a set of brakes orphan of their ABS had been rather difficult at first then, remembering what Bunta Fujiwara had said about the karts, he started using the brake the same way he did when driving the small vehicles.

The result was that he could regulate the braking a lot more accurately making him able to distribute the weight of the car as he braked and accelerated a lot more uniformly.

'See the difference?' Bunta said when Kyosuke got out of his car and, this time round, he did notice that his tyres had the same wearing marks everywhere. Kyosuke nodded.

'I think I'll practice driving without the ABS for a while,' Kyosuke said.

'Nope,' Bunta said, 'just use the brake the same way you've done now. The ABS is useful to correct the mistakes you'll make as the race goes on.'

'Okay,' Kyosuke said not being able to hide his confusion from his expression. Gosh, this guy could drive anyone insane, the young man thought suddenly understanding a lot about the way both Akito and Takumi were.

Later on, as Bunta was driving both his son and his grandson back home in his old GC8, Akito asked:

'Dad, do you think Kyosuke's going to win?'

'I don't know Akito, I won't know until I see how they race but, Ryosuke's simulation predicted that Kyosuke had a good chance to win this race,' Takumi said.

'Is that GT-R a better car than the RZ-1?' Akito asked and this time it was his grandfather who answered:

'Like I've said many times, it's not the car that matters so much…'

'…it's what you do with it,' both Takumi and Akito finished for him.

'What a pair of brats,' Bunta muttered to himself making Takumi and Akito burst out laughing.

At long last, and after many intensive training sessions, the day of Kyosuke's first race arrived and, as they had previously agreed, Takumi drove his son to the Takahashi where they would get something to eat before moving out to Mt Akagi.

They were also going to celebrate, albeit briefly, the fact that being the third day of January, it was also Kyosuke's nineteenth birthday.

'Happy birthday,' Takumi said as Ryosuke's oldest son opened the door to let them in.

'Yeah, happy birthday,' Akito repeated handing Kyosuke a small parcel.

'Did your mother get this one too?' Kyosuke whispered with a smirk.

'No, she only gets me the ones for Ryoko,' Akito replied back in an equally low tone of voice.

Kyosuke laughed softly and, opening the present even before they got to the living room, he took out of the box a gold-platted key ring made out of a Mazda logo.

'Wow, that's…that's really nice,' Kyosuke said.

'Yeah, my father thought you'd like that,' Akito confessed cheekily.

'Do you ever choose any of the presents you give yourself?' Kyosuke said, this time not bothering with keeping his voice down.

'What did you say?' they heard Ryoko ask from her seat at the sofa.

'Er…yeah, of course, I only choose the ones I give to Ryoko,' Akito said looking at Kyosuke as if daring him to contradict him. Seisuke seemed to start saying something but, as soon as Akito looked at him, it quickly transformed itself into a fit of coughing.

Suddenly the room's lights became dimmer and they saw Akiko step into the living room carrying a birthday cake, giving everyone else the cue to start singing to the birthday boy.

'Thanks guys,' Kyosuke said as he blew out all of the nineteen candles.

'Geez Kyosuke, soon you're going to need the fire brigade to help you with the candles,' Ryoko commented and Kyosuke replied with a short and sarcastic laugh.

'Happy birthday, son,' Akiko said and Kyosuke gave his mother a bear-like hug.

'I can't believe you're as old as when I started racing,' Keisuke said.

'Me neither,' Kyoko said, 'to think you were so tiny when you were born and, now…'

'Alright, guys, let's not get too mushy here, we've got a race coming up, remember?' Seisuke said.

'Seisuke, be quiet. I'd like to celebrate your brother's birthday, if you don't mind,' Akiko said dryly.

'Okay, I'm just saying that…'

'We get the point, don't worry,' Keisuke said.

Finally, and as everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, Ryosuke said:

'Okay, it's time to go.'

'What? Guys, you aren't coming too, are you?' Kyosuke asked frowning.

'Your mother and your aunt will stay here with Ryoko, I'll be waiting in the ambulance and Takumi and your uncle will be on stand by, just in case things get nasty but we'll all be out of sight,' Ryosuke reassured him.

'Ah, okay,' Kyosuke said then looking at his brother and Akito, he said, 'alright, let's get ready.'

'Akito, can I have a word with you?' Ryoko asked taking the chance that everyone seemed to be busy doing something else.

'Sure,' Akito replied.

'Let's go to the studio,' Ryoko said and then, as she got up from the sofa assisted by a pair of crutches, Akito asked:

'Can you walk already?'

'Yeah, and you would have noticed if you had been around a bit more these past few days,' Ryoko replied with the dry tone of voice that Akito had come to associate to when his girlfriend was angry with him.

Akito decided to wait until they were both in the studio the three Takahashi kids used to do their homework then he said:

'Sorry, but we've been training and…'

'No!' Ryoko exclaimed turning sharply to look at him before collapsing in the room's small sofa, 'my cousin Kyosuke has been training, you, on the other hand, have done nothing to come and see me more than a few minutes in the evening and not even every evening either.'

'Ryoko, this is important,' Akito said realising he'd just made a mistake a bit too late.

'And I'm not?' she, predictably enough, asked.

Akito sighed audibly before replying:

'Look, you know how we feel about racing.'

'Akito, I knew how you felt about racing but, I never thought you'd get into street racing too.'

'What? Ryoko, the whole point of training so hard to improve our driving skills is not so much to make a living out of it, but to become the best street racers in the country, like our fathers did before we were born,' Akito explained with so much passion he was almost short of breath when he finished.

'But I thought you did want to make a living out of racing,' Ryoko said.

'Yeah, eventually, but before that, I'd like to do what Dad did and become an ace on the streets too.'

'I don't want you to do it,' Ryoko said.

'What?' Akito asked unable to believe his own ears for surely Ryoko had assisted to the many discussions he and the Takahashi brothers had had about their future street racing team.

'I think it's too dangerous,' she insisted.

'Not any more than circuit racing,' Akito countered, 'besides, it's the danger which makes it so much fun.'

'I just don't get it,' Ryoko said.

'You should though, you are Takahashi Keisuke's daughter! Not to mention that your mother was pretty amazing with her FD too,' Akito said and, for some reason, that seemed to upset Ryoko even more.

'So what? I have to become a racer too?' she said almost crying.

'I didn't say that,' Akito said getting increasingly frustrated, 'it's just that I think you should understand how it makes us all feel, you know, the speed and the rest of it.'

'Well, I don't. All I know is that I want my boyfriend to be with me while I'm bored off my mind because of this freaking knee and he's off to see some stupid race,' Ryoko complained.

'Ryoko, I promise you, after this race, we'll spend loads of time together, I swear,' Akito said.

'You know what? I don't believe you. Because after this race, there will be others and when you'll get your driving license it'll be even worse because it'll be you the one who'll be racing.'

Akito sighed again slowly beginning to lose his patience.

'Look, you can believe me or not, that's your choice but right now Kyosuke needs all the support he can get and I am one of his best friends so I have to go with him, alright?'

Seeing that Ryoko didn't say anything to that, he decided to adopt his most pleading tone of voice and say:

'Ryoko, you know I'm crazy about you but, please, I'm begging you: try to understand that I'm crazy about racing too.'

Ryoko looked down to the floor and moved her head in what it looked like a nod.

'Thank you,' Akito said and, bending down to kiss her on the top of her head, he left the room so he could get back to where the boys were.

As he closed the studio's door, Ryoko lifted her head and with her eyes full of tears, she muttered:

'I still don't get it.'

_To be continued…_


	9. Chapter Eight

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter Eight_

There weren't anywhere as many people as there used to be when the Red Suns were actively racing but, again, it was the middle of winter and being this frosty, it was a rather surprising to see that they actually had a few spectators who for the sake of watching this race, were braving the cold as well as they could.

He stole a quick look at Kyosuke as he drove them up to the summit. As usual, he appeared to be calm and almost unconcerned by the whole affair, yet again, Kyosuke had inherited all of his father's abilities to remain completely impassive in front of most things.

When they finally made it all the way up, they saw that Takikawa had already left his black Nissan R35 in position to start the race.

'He's already here,' Akito said pointing out the obvious.

'Yeah, he must be very eager to get his ass kicked,' Seisuke said.

'Okay guys, as we said, wait here. I'll come and pick you up after the race or, if anything happens.'

'We won't need to call Uncle Keisuke, Aniki, we'll be waiting for you, okay?' Seisuke said firmly.

'Okay,' Kyosuke said nodding and Akito could not help but to think that, despite all pretences, the oldest of the Takahashi brothers was a little bit more than nervous.

'Hey,' Akito said facing him, 'you really are better than him, you've prepared yourself better and there isn't even all that much snow left on the road. You'll be fine, trust me.'

'Yeah, stick to Dad's strategy and you'll beat the pants off him,' Seisuke said grasping his older brother's shoulder.

'Thanks guys, it means a lot to…'

'Aniki, don't get all mushy-mushy on us, go and kick his ass instead, okay?'

Kyosuke laughed softly then, getting very serious, he said:

'Alright, this is going to be the first victory for the Golden Arrows.'

'Now you're talking!' Seisuke exclaimed happily.

Kyosuke parked his yellow SF3Z next to the black R35 and, as the three teenagers got out of the car, they heard the Nissan driver's laughter.

'Oh, the school bus has actually showed up!' he exclaimed sounding very amused, 'what, no homework to do tonight?' he added sarcastically.

Kyosuke, tilted his head and with a very flat tone of voice, he said:

'Let's get started, shall we?'

'Hey kid, don't do it, he's…' a guy coming out of nowhere said as he walked towards Kyosuke.

'Don't worry, I'm not afraid,' Kyosuke said, 'but thanks for your concern.'

The guy stopped and, nodding slowly, he said:

'Fine, I just hope you know who you're dealing with.'

Kyosuke grinned at the guy and then, looking at Takikawa, he said:

'Like I said, don't worry, I know exactly who I'm dealing with.'

Takikawa's sarcastic smirk seemed to falter a bit as he climbed into his R35. Akito took the chance to take a good look at his car and even though its design vaguely reminded him of the old Z33, the R35 was wider and its body stood a bit lower from the ground than the old Nissan.

This made it possible for Akito to see that the car's had a very expensive looking winter set of tyres. That, and the fact that the Nissan was a 4WD equipped with the VDC system which, if turned off, offered Takikawa a definitive advantage when driving on snow.

However, Akito also knew that Kyosuke had driven on Akagi more often than Takikawa and his Mazda had been finely tuned for this race. Akito couldn't forget either that Kyosuke was going to follow a strategy devised by the original set of Takahashi brothers with the invaluable help of both Takumi and Bunta. In short, Kyosuke could not lose, there was no way on earth he would let this punk claim a win in Mt Akagi.

At long last, both car's engines came alive and Seisuke, having appointed himself as the countdown man, stood in front of Takikawa's and Kyosuke's cars so, at ten o'clock sharp Seisuke shouted:

'FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE, GO!'

As soon as he lowered his arm, both cars drove off so fast that Seisuke had to make an effort not to fall flat on his face.

'Wow!' Akito gasped as he saw the phenomenal speed with which both cars had taken off.

'Go Aniki, go!' Seisuke cheered.

Unfortunately for Kyosuke, he could not follow Seisuke's advice since he had to stick to the strategy his father had planned out for him and, for this reason, he had to let the Nissan overtake him right at the first corner of the Akagi downhill.

'What the heck?' Kyosuke muttered as he saw that the Nissan didn't seem to be too willing to pass his Mazda. Kyosuke braked so hard that he almost made his car come to a full stop. Then, the Nissan had no choice but to overtake him.

'Dad was right,' Kyosuke said to himself for it had become obvious that the Nissan wanted to stay behind so it could push Kyosuke's car out of the road, 'well, tough luck, because I'm not going to play your game,' he then added.

Sticking his car to the back of the GT-R, he limited himself to keep up with it while at the same time, watch its behaviour very closely, in case the Nissan's brake lights came on at a moment where they shouldn't.

Kyosuke was happy to see that, as Akito had pointed out earlier on, there wasn't too much snow left on the road, meaning he could push the car a bit more than when he'd been training and, remembering that he had to treat his tyres as carefully as possible, he re-adjusted his pedal work copying what he did when driving karts so the ABS wouldn't even come online.

There hadn't been more than a few corners when the Nissan did exactly what Ryosuke had predicted it would do, he started braking at the wrong places and changing its line making it cross with the one Kyosuke was following.

Thank goodness, Kyosuke was more than prepared for this so, he just carried on copying whatever the Nissan did so his car would never go anywhere near its tail.

Meanwhile, back at the summit, Seisuke stared at Akito for a while before saying:

'What's up with you tonight?'

'What? Me? Nothing…' Akito said all too quickly.

'Yeah, right…did you have a fight with Ryoko?'

Akito sighed then he nodded.

'She didn't want me to come here,' he admitted.

'What? Why not?'

'I don't know. She doesn't want me to become a street racer either,' Akito said.

'Oh man, that sucks,' Seisuke said and, for the second time that night, Akito heard him speak with a very serious tone of voice.

'You seem to be speaking through personal experience,' Akito commented.

'I am,' Seisuke said then, looking down at the ground, he said, 'do you remember that Kaori girl?'

Akito nodded.

'I really liked her,' Seisuke confessed to a very astonished Akito.

'What happened?'

'She doesn't like racing and she didn't want me to race,' Seisuke explained.

'Oh, wow…'

'Yeah, we dated for a while and I almost fell in love with her,' Seisuke continued, 'but then she made a huge mistake.'

'And what was that?'

'She wanted me to choose between her and racing,' Seisuke said then, looking back at Akito, he added, 'you can guess what I chose.'

Akito didn't know what to say to that so Seisuke said:

'Don't worry, I doubt Ryoko will make the same mistake, she knows better than that.'

'I hope so,' Akito said for, if he had to be honest, he wasn't quite as sure about this as Seisuke seemed to be.

'Anyway, I wonder what Aniki's doing. That Takikawa guy is probably wishing he'd stayed home with mummy,' Seisuke said, the seriousness disappearing from his voice to be replaced with his normal, cheerful tone.

'Yeah, probably,' Akito agreed and, watching Seisuke's smirk, he could not help but to think that beneath all the sarcasm and the rest of it, Seisuke was probably a really sensitive guy and, more likely than not, choosing racing over the girl he loved had made him suffer a lot.

As Akito was dwelling on this, Kyosuke was in serious trouble:

The Nissan's driver, getting increasingly frustrated by the fact that Kyosuke wasn't allowing him a single chance to go anywhere near the RZ-1 so he could hit him and sending both driver and machine down the cliff, had started behaving very oddly and Kyosuke had a lot of problems trying to keep the appropriate distance while still keeping up with the Nissan.

Even though outside was freezing cold, Kyosuke found his brow to be drenched in sweat. Unfortunately, he could not allow himself to take his hands off the wheel so he could wipe it dry.

'Fuck,' he muttered as, for the umpteenth time, the Nissan braked making Kyosuke have to copy him while hoping the car would not slide on whatever snow was left.

Kyosuke was dying to overtake him so he could drive away from him, however, and according to his father's prediction, this was exactly what the R35's driver was waiting for and, if on top of that, one added the fact that, with the Nissan so close to him he could not even drift all that much, it made Kyosuke feel even more frustrated.

Taking a couple of deep, steadying breaths, Kyosuke forced himself to focus even harder, preparing himself for the moment when he would be allowed to overtake the Nissan: right at the last corner of the Akagi circuit.

Kyosuke followed the Nissan into one of the high speed left hand corners of the course, one which was delimited by a wall on its right side and a guardrail on the left one which tried to prevent the cars from falling into the cliff.

He then saw the GT-R do the unthinkable:

Takikawa performed a four wheel inertia drift, placing his car across the entire width of the road leaving next to no space for Kyosuke's Mazda to pass, clearly intending for Kyosuke to either collide frontally against the passenger side of the Nissan or drive straight down the cliff.

'Shit!' Kyosuke shouted wondering how on earth had Takikawa managed such a feat with an AWD.

Before he knew it, and probably following some sort of subconscious instinct, Kysouke did the only thing he could possibly do: he steered towards the snow covered wall, hoping that there would be enough space between it and the GT-R for his car to pass.

He kept the two left hand tyres on the tarmac while putting the other two completely outside of the road, on the snow and a hair away from the wall. He then drove through the corner with his car tilted at about thirty degrees praying so that the car's tyres would keep their grip on the snow.

This manoeuvre had a very nasty side effect: the R35's driver, finding himself being overtaken by Kyosuke in such an unorthodox way, lost control of the car and, just as the SF3Z finally passed him, Kyosuke, looking at his rear view mirror saw as the Nissan crashed sideways against the wall, scratching the driver's side of the car then, the impact made it bounce towards the guardrail and by the time Kyosuke stopped his car, the GT-R had its front partially stuck under the protective barrier.

What was worse, since the first collision had basically smashed the right side of the car, Takikawa didn't seem to be able to open the door so he could climb out of the Nissan.

'Shit,' Kyosuke repeated as he got out of his RZ-1 as he pulled his mobile phone out of his pocket to call his father.

'Dad,' he said as he ran towards the GT-R.

'Kyosuke, you're alright?' Ryosuke asked with just a hint of panic in his deep voice.

'Yeah, I am. I don't think Takikawa is though. Dad he's crashed his car,' Kyosuke replied, his adrenaline levels getting even higher than when he'd been racing the Nissan.

'I'll be there in minute, wait for me,' Ryosuke said.

'Sure,' Kyosuke said and then he walked towards the driver's side, he saw an immobile Takikawa holding himself to the steering wheel with his head on top of his arms.

This made Kyosuke fear the worse so, with a titanic effort, he managed to get the door open.

'Hey, you're alright?' Kyosuke asked too afraid to even try to shake him.

'Yeah, my neck's sore though,' Takikawa whispered.

'Don't worry, there's an ambulance on its way here,' Kyosuke said, 'my father is in it, he's a doctor.'

'What?' Takikawa asked trying to lift his head from the steering wheel.

'Well, you did tell me to make an appointment with the doctor, didn't you?' Kyosuke said with a cheeky smile on his face.

'Who in the heck are you? I've never had anyone able to keep up with me like that, shit I even had to resort to my last option,' Takikawa whispered angrily.

Kyosuke didn't say anything to that so, after the guy had looked at him for a bit, Takikawa said:

'Your surname's Takahashi…'

'Yep,' Kyosuke said.

'Are you related in any way to Takahashi Keisuke?'

Kyosuke laughed softly before replying:

'Yeah, he's my uncle.'

'Crap,' the guy said letting his head back on top of his arms, 'if I had known that earlier, I would have never challenged you.'

'I'm glad you did, it was very good training for me.'

'You're nuts,' Takikawa said.

'Look who's talking,' Kyosuke replied.

Five minutes later, the ambulance arrived and Ryosuke, assisted by a couple of paramedics, helped a very sore Takikawa get on top of a stretcher while Keisuke organised for a towing truck to remove the Nissan from the road.

'Hey,' the guy said.

'Yes?'

'We'll race again…'

'Okay, but only if you race fairly, okay?' Kyosuke asked.

'Yeah, I think this race has taught me a thing or two,' Takikawa replied.

'I'm happy to hear that,' Ryosuke said, intervening in the conversation for the first time.

About a half an hour later the whole gang met with Ryosuke and Kyosuke in one of the waiting rooms at the Arakawa Hospital.

'How's the punk?' Seisuke asked.

'He's alright, he's just had a whiplash and a huge scare,' Ryosuke explained to his youngest son.

'And he's not so much of a punk,' Kyosuke added.

'So, did you win?' Akito asked as he and his father joined the Takahashi.

'I'd say so, after all, he crashed as I was overtaking him,' Kyosuke said, 'but it doesn't feel like a win.'

'Oh, that's bullshit,' Keisuke said, 'you were in front, you win. That's how it is in racing.'

'Alright,' Kyosuke said smiling.

'Wait till this spreads around, Aniki,' Seisuke said with a huge grin.

'Yeah, I don't think you're going to have problems finding members for your team now,' Takumi said.

Kyosuke looked at Akito's father and nodding, he said:

'Nope, I don't think so either.'

'Kyosuke, I think this is where the Golden Arrows legend starts,' Akito said.

This made all four adults laugh and, smiling at his son, Takumi said:

'You still have a long way to go before you can call yourselves 'a legend'.'

'Dad, you always manage to ruin the mood,' Akito complained and the ugly scowl on his face made everyone laugh.

_To be continued…_


	10. Chapter Nine

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter Nine_

Akito and Seisuke walked towards the edge of the small karting circuit where Takumi stood as he kept an eye on the evolutions of a kart that was going around the track.

'How is she doing?' Akito asked.

'She seems pretty fast to me,' Seisuke commented.

'Yeah, she's actually faster than you were at her age,' Takumi said making Akito do a double take.

'Really?' the teenager exclaimed taking a look at the computer which was helping Takumi keeping the times Haruko had been doing. She was indeed extraordinarily fast.

'She's great, isn't she?' Takumi said proudly while Seisuke tried, rather unsuccessfully, to repress a snigger.

Akito stared at his sister as the almost eight year old girl tackled a sharp corner and was astounded to see that, in the few months that she'd been driving the karts, her technique had dramatically improved. He could not help but to be as proud of her as Takumi obviously was.

'You're lucky she's eight years younger than you are,' Seisuke commented.

'Why is that?' Akito asked.

'Well, you have plenty of years to get loads of practice because if she keeps this up, she's going to kick your ass when she grows up,' Seisuke replied making Akito give him a sarcastic laugh.

'So, Seisuke, your uncle tells me you've applied for your driving test,' Takumi asked without removing his gaze from the little vehicle.

'Yes! Only three more weeks to go!' Seisuke said smiling like a cat that'd just caught a mouse.

'You're so lucky,' Akito said, 'I'd give anything to be eighteen.'

Takumi looked at his son to reply to this remark but refrained himself from doing so when he saw Akito's tired expression.

'Son, are you alright?'

'Yeah, don't worry,' Akito lied.

Seisuke snorted making Akito glare at him.

'Since tomorrow is Sunday, I think it'd be a good idea if you stayed home and got some rest,' Takumi said.

'I can't, I've got to see Ryoko, I've promised her.'

Takumi looked at Akito for a while before saying:

'Maybe you should stop coming with me for the deliveries.'

'No, Dad! I learn loads when you let me drive the GC8!' Akito exclaimed with a panicked expression on his face.

'Alright, fine,' Takumi said then, deciding to drop the subject, at least for now, he added, 'this came in the post this morning.'

'Ah, okay…' Akito said taking the envelope his father was giving to him and, opening the letter as quickly as possible, he saw that it was from the Karting Federation, 'It's this season's calendar,' he commented.

'They've sent it pretty late this year, haven't they?' Takumi commented.

'So, when is the first race?' Seisuke asked.

'Oh crap,' Akito said now looking even paler than before.

'What is it?' Takumi asked a bit apprehensively.

'It's on Sunday.'

'And?' Seisuke asked.

'It's Valentine's Day,' Akito said with consternation.

Both Seisuke and Takumi looked at each other briefly before Seisuke said:

'I know someone who's not going to be happy about this.'

'Seisuke, 'not happy' doesn't even begin to describe it: Ryoko's going to go ballistic because it's our first Valentine's together,' Akito said with a worried frown on his face.

'Nah, she'll understand,' Seisuke lied trying to make his friend feel better.

'Yeah, sure,' Akito said sarcastically, 'I better go and call her, the sooner she knows the more time I'll have to try and get her used to the idea.'

'Takumi-san,' Seisuke said as he watched his friend walking away with his phone on his ear, 'I'd like to tell you something but I don't want Akito to know I've told you.'

Takumi looked at him and said:

'Go ahead.'

'Well, the thing is, I think Akito's overdoing things a bit.'

'I know that, I just don't think Akito wants to give anything of what he does up, you've heard what he said earlier.'

'I know…he's so stubborn sometimes, isn't he?' Seisuke said making Takumi smile for his son had, indeed, inherited a large part of the Fujiwara's stubbornness.

'I'll see what I can do, okay?'

'Thanks, I'll appreciate it,' Seisuke said feeling much better for he and his brother had been very worried about Akito and knowing that Takumi would talk to him made Seisuke hope that his younger friend would start taking things easier.

Takumi nodded then, seeing that his daughter had parked the kart near him, he walked towards her.

'Did I do well?' the girl asked as soon as she removed her helmet.

'You did better than well!' Takumi exclaimed helping her out of the kart.

'So, when do I get to race for real?' Haruko said.

'Well, we have to convince your mother first,' Takumi said crouching next to his daughter, 'she thinks you're a bit too young to start racing seriously.'

'Young? But Daddy, I'm going to be eight in April!' she exclaimed.

Takumi shook his head while thinking how hard it was going to be to talk Natsuki into letting their adored little girl race with other kids in a real competition.

Meanwhile, Akito had an even bigger job trying to convince Ryoko that missing their first Valentine's Day ever wasn't the end of the world.

'I just knew it, didn't I tell you this would happen?' Ryoko said angrily from the other end of the line.

'I know it's a very important day but…'

'Can't we meet up in the morning?'

'I have to help preparing things for the race in the morning,' Akito replied trying to remain as calm as possible.

'What about the evening?'

'My parents are going out and I have to baby sit Haruko,' Akito explained, then, as an afterthought, he said, 'why don't you come to the race? Your cousins are coming too.'

'I've got the physiotherapy, don't you remember?' Ryoko asked.

Crap, that was true, Akito thought.

'Of course you don't,' she said getting upset all over again, 'you haven't even been to a single one of my physiotherapy sessions.'

This was a bit too much for Akito's already worn out patience:

'Ryoko, look, you know I have to train really hard for the championship. If I do well in these coming years, I might be hired by one of the racing teams and start racing professionally. Besides, you know that I try my best to spend every single minute of my free time with you.'

Seeing that Ryoko wasn't saying anything to that, he sighed and said:

'Ryoko, you know that it's not easy for me to go and see you but I'm still doing my best. You should at least admit this much.'

'I know you are,' she finally said, 'is just that…oh…I don't even know how to say this…'

Akito was beginning to get a headache so, he said:

'Look, let's not talk about this on the phone, we can talk about it tomorrow, okay?'

'Fine,' she just said.

Akito finished the call and, getting up from the bench where he'd been sitting, he started walking towards the main building so he could find somewhere quiet to rest for a few minutes before he'd have to climb into his kart.

'Hey, there you are,' Kyosuke said entering the room where Akito had fallen asleep while sitting on a comfy armchair.

'Crap, what time is it?' Akito asked springing up from his seat.

'Don't worry, you're not late for your training session,' Kyosuke replied.

'What are you doing here?' Akito asked as he and Kyosuke started walking towards the building's main door.

'Oh, nothing, I finished all my homework so I decided to come and see you guys,' he said.

'You've got another battle this evening, haven't you?'

'Yes and I'm very impressed: the guy's coming all the way from Nagano, just to race me,' Kyosuke said.

'Yeah, you're famous now.'

'Not so famous, I've only won two races so far,' Kyosuke said as the two stepped out of the building and started making their way to the karting circuit.

'Yeah, against a psycho ex-professioonal racer and against that idiot of Iwaki Makoto,' Akito commented.

'Yeah well, racing against Takikawa was interesting but racing Iwaki was just a waste of my time.'

'Yeah, you overtook him in the second corner so easily that even I felt embarrassed for him,' Akito added.

'Oh well, I hope it helps him become a better racer,' Kyosuke said and, seeing the sceptical way in which Akito raised his eyebrows made him laugh softly, 'you still don't like him, do you?'

'Let's just say I prefer going to the dentist than being in the same room than him,' Akito said making Kyosuke laugh even more.

When they arrived at the karting track, they saw Takumi and Keisuke there, discussing something while Seisuke and little Haruko listened to their conversation.

'Hey,' Kyosuke said.

'Hello Kyosuke, are you ready for tonight?' Keisuke asked.

'Yes Uncle Keisuke, everything is under control,' Kyosuke replied smiling confidently.

'I'll go and get ready,' Akito said not really sure whether anyone was paying any attention to him.

After a few minutes, Akito was onboard his kart and, taking a deep breath, he pressed the button to turn its small engine on then, as he pressed the accelerator pedal to roll it forward, Akito realised that this was the very first time in his whole life that he didn't really feel like driving and that was probably the main reason why, after he'd driven for a few laps, he saw his father making a sign, telling him to finish the lap and stop next to him.

'What's wrong with you?' Takumi said as Akito removed his helmet.

'Yeah, Akito, your sister here drives faster than that,' Seisuke said putting a hand on Haruko's tiny shoulder while the little girl smirked at her big brother with an air of superiority.

'Akito, get out of the kart, it's useless that you do any training today,' Keisuke said.

Akito looked at everyone with dismay and realising that they were right, he pushed himself up from the kart and he sighed tiredly as he stepped out of it.

'I'm sorry,' he muttered.

'Don't worry, we still have a few days to go before the first race,' Takumi said.

Akito just nodded and without saying anything else, he made his way to his father's car.

'Well, we'll just go home now,' Takumi said offering his hand to Haruko, 'Kyosuke, I don't think Akito will show up at your battle tonight, I think he really needs some rest.'

'Yeah, it's okay,' Kyosuke replied for he totally agreed with his friend's father.

The following day and after having slept so much that he'd even skipped the tofu delivery, Akito got up and, taking just a couple of bites for breakfast, he headed to the station to catch the train to Maebashi.

He wasn't too sure why, but going out with Ryoko was proving to be even harder than when he believed that his love for the girl was an unrequited one. It just seemed to him that, no matter how much effort he put into this relationship, it was never enough. Even so, as he saw her waiting for him at the station's square, all the anxiety seemed to evaporate along with his doubts: looking at her beautiful face, made him think that he would put up with anything just to be with her.

'Hey,' he said kissing her softly.

'Hello,' she replied.

'I heard your cousin won again,' he said conversationally as soon as the two were sitting at a table in their usual coffee shop.

'Yeah, even though the other guy put up a good fight, Kyosuke still managed to win rather easily,' she said, stirring her coffee distractedly.

'How's your knee?' he asked deciding to focus the conversation on her rather than racing.

'Much better, thanks,' Ryoko replied and it seemed to be true for she now used a single crutch to walk and she no longer had her leg bandaged.

'Do you think you'll be able to skate again?' he asked.

'I don't know, it's too soon to tell,' she replied.

'Ah, that's too bad.'

'Why is that?' she asked a bit too aggressively, startling Akito in the process.

'Well, because I'd love to see you skate again. You were really something on the ice,' he explained smiling despite her less than friendly tone of voice.

'What would happen if I didn't skate ever again? Would you like me less?' she asked.

'No! Of course not,' Akito said feeling very confused.

'You guys make me feel like an alien sometimes,' she muttered and as Akito was going to say something, she added, 'Akito, I really need to ask you something.'

Akito swallowed, definitely not liking the tone she'd just used nonetheless, he nodded encouraging her to speak up.

'The thing is,' she started, 'I've doing some thinking.'

Not a good way to start any conversation, Akito thought to himself and getting even more scared.

'Do you remember when we went to the cinema on Thursday?' she asked.

'Yeah,' he replied.

'You fell asleep not even ten minutes into the movie and you woke up right at the end of it,' she said and Akito nodded for it was true.

'Yeah, sorry,' he said for he also remembered that she hadn't been too happy about that. Especially since it was the third time in a row.

'It then became obvious to me that you're probably trying to do too many things at the same time,' Ryoko continued.

'No, I'm okay, I swear,' he lied.

'That's not true and you know it. Just look at you: you're a wreck!' she said looking at him accusingly.

Akito remained silent for he knew she was right then, looking even more determined, she said:

'This has also made me think that you should maybe consider giving something up.'

'I can't give up school! Even though I wouldn't mind doing it, it's such a pain sometimes,' he commented, desperately trying to steer the conversation away from what he knew was coming.

'I'm not talking about school here.'

'Don't do it, Ryoko,' he said pleadingly.

Ryoko looked at him and, as her eyes started filling up with tears, she said:

'Is racing really more important than me?'

'No!' he exclaimed, 'Ryoko, racing is my life but so are you, that's why I can't choose between you and racing. I just can't,' he said feeling increasingly distressed.

'Fine, I'll make the choice for you then,' she said getting up.

'What are you saying?' Akito asked.

'I'm going home,' Ryoko said and, with this, she left him sitting there, unable to move or speak as he felt as though as his world had just collapsed on him.

_To be continued…_


	11. Chapter Ten

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter Ten_

Akito only reacted when a waitress came to the table to ask him if he wanted anything else then, realising that he'd probably been there for quite a while, excused himself, paid the bill and made his way back to the station.

He did all of this as if he were in automatic pilot.

Somehow, he managed to get on the right train, get off at the right stop and find his way home where he found his family sitting together with little Haruko trying to convince her mother that driving karts was a lot of fun and that she should try it sometime soon. If he hadn't been in such a state of shock, Akito would have found hilarious the thought of seeing his mother onboard a kart, driving around a circuit.

'Akito, I thought you wouldn't get home until much later,' Natsuki commented seeing the boy entering the house.

'No, er…well, I have loads of homework to do,' he said and, with this, he walked up the stairs and towards his room.

'Is he alright?' Natsuki asked her husband.

'I don't know,' Takumi replied for he, too, found it strange that Akito had come back home so early so he could do his school work.

'Maybe he needs to talk to someone,' Natsuki said and Takumi shook his head.

'No, if we nag him he's just going to push us away.'

'Yeah, I guess you're right,' Natsuki said thinking that, after all, there wasn't anyone who knew Akito quite as well as Takumi did.

'So, Mum, when are you coming with us to the karting track?' Haruko said, trying to get her parents' attention back on her.

Natsuki looked at Takumi begging him to help her but, cruelly enough, Takumi said:

'I think I'm going to go to Itsuki's.'

'Thanks,' Natsuki replied with a very fake smile.

'No problem,' he had the cheek to say before getting up from the sofa, leaving his wife to deal with Haruko's question all by herself.

Upstairs, Akito was laying on his bed with his head in such a mess that he didn't even want to begin the task of figuring out what in the heck had he done wrong. As far as he was concerned, he'd done everything in his power to make Ryoko as happy as possible, heck, he'd even studied at night time, before he went off to do the deliveries with his father, so his grades would be good enough so that his parents couldn't complain about them.

He also spent most of his pocket money in train rides and their dates, to the point where he was no longer able to save up any of it anymore. But none of this seemed to have prevented what he'd feared the most because, unless he'd just misunderstood the whole thing very badly, his less than two months old relationship with Ryoko was over.

Turning round on his bed, pressing his face against the pillow, he allowed himself to do something he rarely did: he started crying.

He woke up a few hours later when his mother knocked on his door to tell him that dinner was ready. Inventing some rather feeble excuse, he managed to send her away and, taking off his jeans, he got in bed and decided to sleep until his alarm clock would wake him up to go and do the deliveries with his father.

Then, he'd sleep some more, wake up and head to school and, despite what he'd told Ryoko, for Akito going to school wasn't a problem: he was fairly popular among the students and had a couple of mates he liked hanging around with so, thankfully, he managed to go through the day pretty easily.

Unfortunately, that afternoon his father was going to pick him up to go to the centre and he'd never been any less looking forward to seeing any of the Takahashi, especially Keisuke who, by now, was probably very eager to see Akito so he could make hamburgers out of the teenager.

'Hey, what's up!' Seisuke greeted Akito as he saw his friend climbing out of the AE86. Akito, on the other hand, examined Seisuke's expression as close as he could possibly do without arising any suspicions from the youngest of the Takahashi.

'Hello? Anyone up there?' Seisuke said knocking on Akito's head.

'Yeah, ouch, that hurt!' Akito exclaimed frowning slightly. What was going on? Seisuke seemed to be pretty much himself and not at all looking as though as he wanted to kill him for breaking his cousin's heart.

'Oh gosh, what's wrong with you? Lovesick again?' Seisuke said with mock horror.

'No, er…can you come with me one minute?' he whispered very conscious of the fact that as his father was locking the Toyota, Akito could see Keisuke coming their way to greet them.

'Sure,' Seisuke replied, his seemingly permanent smile gone and replaced by a concerned frown.

As soon as Akito was sure that there was enough distance between them and the two adults, he said:

'Seisuke, did anything strange happen at your place last night?'

'No, why?'

'Are you sure?' Akito insisted.

'No, well, yeah, now that you mention it, Aniki didn't mind me having the remote control of the TV, and that's really strange.'

Akito rolled his eyes and, hoping to help Seisuke, he said:

'Did anything happen with Ryoko?'

Seisuke stared at Akito, looking very confused then, he said:

'Why are you asking all of these questions?'

Akito, surrendering to the unavoidable, he decided to confess:

'I think we broke up yesterday.'

'What?' Seisuke shouted so loudly that scared the shits out of Akito.

'Seisuke, shush…'

'What happened?' Seisuke ignored him still speaking with an indecently loud tone of voice.

'She asked me to choose…and I couldn't…'

'She did what?' Seisuke exclaimed.

'Yeah, well, I couldn't choose, so she chose for me.'

'And?'

'She went home,' Akito said.

'Wow…well, she sure didn't say anything to us during dinner,' Seisuke commented after recovering from the shock.

'Why wouldn't she tell you?' Akito asked, feeling even more confused than the previous night.

'Several reasons, I guess,' Seisuke explained, 'to begin with, she was probably too embarrassed about it, also, she probably didn't want Uncle Keisuke take his Magnum to go to your place and kill you.'

'He's got a Magnum?' Akito asked suddenly fearing a lot more for his life than usual.

'Of course not,' Seisuke replied, 'he collects katana though,' he added as an afterthought.

'Great, I'm going to be sliced to death,' Akito said sarcastically.

'You want me to tell you something?' Seisuke asked and Akito just nodded, 'I think that if she didn't say anything is because there wasn't anything to say, this means that she probably doesn't think you guys have broken up…'

'She surely fooled me,' Akito said even more sarcastically.

'No, look, she probably has just given up on you.'

'And that helps me how?' Akito asked with a very dry tone of voice.

'I don't know, who do you think I am? I'm her cousin, not her freaking shrink,' Seisuke complained.

'Sorry,' Akito said.

'Look, I think you should focus on Sunday's race and forget about the rest,' Seisuke said.

Akito nodded to that and then followed Seisuke to the garage where they kept the karts.

'Come on, I'll help you with your training today,' he said.

'Seisuke, can I ask you something?'

'Sure,' he said.

'If Kaori had second thoughts about asking you to choose, what would you do?'

'I honestly don't know,' he replied, 'but right now I have to focus on school so I get a mark high enough to study Medicine. Also, I need to help Aniki building up our team.'

'I get it,' Akito said and, with this, he just climbed into the kart and, this time and unlike the last time he'd been driving, he did a very good job.

'You're great! Look at the times,' Keisuke said and Akito was pleased to see that his times had indeed got much better.

'Now, this is what I call driving,' Takumi said patting his son's shoulder.

'Yeah, drive this way on Sunday and you'll be finishing the race even before the opponents can find their helmets,' Seisuke said smiling in the cheeky way that made him so popular with the girls.

On Sunday afternoon, he didn't quite end the race before the opponents found their helmets but, he could have very well had a cappuccino as he waited for everyone to cross the finish line.

'Well done son, very good,' Takumi said, 'now remember that this is how you drive if you want to win.'

'Yeah, Dad, don't worry, I'll remember,' Akito replied.

'Leave the boy alone,' Bunta said walking towards them.

'Grandpa! You're here too!' Akito said, 'Are you coming back home with us? Mum and Dad are going out and…'

'Sorry boy but I'm going out for a meeting.'

'What's with you and those meetings? What kind of meetings are they anyway?' Akito asked half disappointed, half amused.

'I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you,' Bunta said with a smirk.

'I've been asking him that all my life and that's as straight an answer as you're ever going to get,' Takumi said to his son.

'Okay, I get it,' Akito said laughing at the way his father looked at his old man. Then, as he saw Kyosuke and Seisuke walk towards him, he remembered that he hadn't seen nor spoken to Ryoko ever since that horrible Sunday morning a week ago. That was enough to kill his smile instantly.

'Hey, you won, so, what's new?' Kyosuke asked flatly but with a smile on his face.

'I don't always win,' Akito complained and, he saw the two Takahashi giving him a knowing look.

'Let's go and celebrate!' Seisuke shouted happily and, Akito did everything he could to be as happy for his first victory of the season as everyone else seemed to be. Unfortunately, he couldn't help but to think that what he really wanted to do was to celebrate Valentine's Day with a gorgeous fifteen year old called Ryoko.

A few hours after the race, and with Haruko having gone to bed shortly after dinner, Akito was busy trying to find a space in his room where to put his newest trophy when he heard the house's phone ringing and, afraid that Haruko would wake up, he ran out of his room, getting to the phone just before it went into the answering machine.

'Hello?' he answered.

'Hello, Akito, this is Kyoko, listen, have seen Ryoko today?'

'Er…no, why?'

'Oh, it's just that I brought her back home after her rehabilitation session but, I've just gone to her room and she wasn't there.'

'Ah, well, maybe she's gone to get something from the mini market,' Akito suggested even though he knew all too well where Ryoko really was.

'Well, if you do hear from her, please call us, okay?' Kyoko said clearly not buying Akito's hypothesis.

'Of course,' he said and, as he hung up the phone, he ran back into his room.

If there was one person who knew where the party Ryoko had gone to was, that was Ryoko's best friend Yayoi. Thankfully, the girl was a maniac of those little do-it-yourself personal cards so he probably had one lying around somewhere. Small problem was: where?

He started rummaging through his whole room until, about half an hour later, he found it beneath a pile of manga books. After taking it, he went back to the phone and dialling Yayoi's number, he waited for her to answer.

'Hello?' he heard her say.

'Hi, this is Fujiwara Akito, you know…'

'Ryoko's boyfriend, I know,' Yayoi said and that made Akito frown: so not even Yayoi knew about their break up.

'Yeah, the thing is…'

'It's awfully quiet in there,' she commented confusing Akito.

'Of course it's quiet, I'm at home,' he said.

'What? Weren't you supposed to go to that party with Ryoko? She's been talking about it the whole week,' Yayoi said.

'What are you talking about?' Akito asked.

'She said you were going to take her to Takasaki for a huge party they're having up Mt Akagi.'

'Ah, right, yeah, er…' Akito said then, finally being able to think straight, he said, 'I'm going to join her in a minute.'

The line went mute for a short while then, Yayoi said:

'Is everything alright? I've noticed that Ryoko's been behaving weird lately.'

'Yeah, sure, everything's good,' Akito lied through his teeth.

'Okay, well, I'll see you,' Yayoi said.

Then they hung up and Akito remained standing by the phone for a while, trying to decide what to do. He could call Kyoko-san back and tell her where her daughter was but that would probably land Ryoko in a huge amount of trouble.

He could also try calling her.

Yeah, he'd do that, he thought as he picked the phone back up. He dialled Ryoko's number and, for the second time that evening, waited for an answer. Unfortunately, the only one he got was that of her voice mail.

Okay, so her phone was turned off. Now what?

He could hardly go to Takasaki to try and find her, could he?

'Why not?' he asked to himself.

Because he didn't have any means of transportation available, he said, answering to his own question.

'That's not true,' he said thinking of the panda coloured car that was parked inside the Fujiwara's garage.

Without giving himself too much time to think, he ran downstairs and, taking the key from the top of the small table at the house's entrance, he went into the garage and opening the garage's automated gate, he got into the AE86, turned its engine on knowing perfectly well that his father would probably kill him for what he was about to do. He then drove out of the garage and started heading towards Mt Akagi.

With a bit of luck, he'd be back before his parents would so his father would never find out.

_To be continued…_


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter Eleven_

The drive to Mt Akagi took a bit longer than usual because Akito had to avoid the major roads where even at ten o'clock in the evening, the chances of being stopped by the police were much higher. In any case and by the time he got to the bottom of the legendary mountain pass, he realised the reason why his father had not yet allowed him to drive the AE86.

The Toyota was an incredibly difficult car to drive. Not only the steering wheel and the clutch were extraordinarily hard and uncooperative but, the whole car seemed to do pretty much whatever it wanted. It took Akito every single one of his driving skills just so the car would stay on the road.

And he wasn't even pushing it.

This only made Akito's respect and admiration for both his father and grandfather increase since both men managed to drive the AE86 making it look like if it were easy.

As he started driving uphill, he also began looking out for any signs that would let him know where the party was going on. It wasn't until he had almost reached the mountain top that he saw a huge, old warehouse with loads of cars and motorbikes parked outside. The very loud music coming from the building told him he had found what he'd been looking for so, parking the AE86 as close to the entrance as possible, he got out of it and after locking it, he made his way towards the warehouse.

Of course, he wasn't expecting to be allowed into the party without any problem, so when the wardrobe-like guy who stood at the door asked him if he'd been invited to the party, Akito said:

'My girlfriend has and she's just called asking me to join her.'

'Ah, right, and who is this girlfriend of yours?' the guy asked him, obviously not believing a single word of what Akito was saying.

'Takahashi Ryoko,' he replied.

'Ryo-chan? You're Ryo-chan's boyfriend?' the guy said and Akito was shocked to see that the guy actually knew Ryoko.

'Yeah,' Akito said.

The guy looked at him incredulously then, turning round to speak to another wardrobe-like guy who was standing nearby, he said:

'This monkey here is saying that he's Ryo-chan's boyfriend.'

The other guy started laughing and, taking the chance they were distracted, Akito decided to make his move: he ran into the building as fast as he could praying he would find Ryoko before the two wardrobes would find him. He then started looking around the place and as he saw the two guys closing up on him, he finally found her and, seeing what she was doing made him wish he hadn't:

She was there with a half drunk bottle of beer in her hand, sitting on a tattered couch with a guy with spiky burgundy hair who was clearly trying to kiss her.

'Ryoko!' he shouted so she could hear him over the horribly loud music.

'Akito! What are you doing here?' she said smiling in a way that told him she was way beyond tipsy.

'What are you doing here? Come on, let's go home!' he said, still shouting.

'Who in the heck is this?' the guy sitting next to Ryoko asked, eyeing Akito as though as if he were a cockroach.

'Oh, that's Akito, my ex-boyfriend,' Ryoko replied slurring her words in a very ugly way.

'Ryoko…' Akito said, this time using such a low tone of voice that the girl didn't even hear him.

'There you are!' Akito heard the two wardrobe-like guys shout from somewhere at his back.

'Crap,' Akito muttered, then, shouting again, he begged, 'Ryoko, please let's go home!'

Ryoko looked at him and, for the tiniest of moments, she seemed to want to go with him then, some unidentified emotion flashed in her eyes and looking at the guy sitting next to her, she said:

'I just hate it when guys like him don't take a hint.'

'Get him out of here,' the guy sitting with her said talking to the bouncers who, hearing the guy's order, didn't hesitate to grab Akito's arms. Only as they lifted him off the ground, the teenager started struggling trying unsuccessfully to escape from their only increased his discomfort so, he stopped resisting and as he was being dragged out of the warehouse, he used every ounce of his energies to shout the girl's name.

To his dismay, Akito saw that, instead of Ryoko, it was the guy sitting next to her who got up, probably just to make sure Akito got thrown out of the place.

'Let's take him to his pushbike so he can ride back home to mummy,' one of the huge guys said mockingly.

'I didn't come here by pushbike!' Akito protested, 'My car's just there.'

They looked at the point Akito was indicating with his head.

'That's your car?' the spiky haired guy asked.

Akito just nodded.

'Let go of him,' the guy said talking to the two wardrobes who released him almost immediately. As Akito started rubbing his very sore arms, the guy asked, 'do you even know what you're driving?'

'Yeah,' Akito replied.

'You can't be old enough to have your driving license,' the guy said and seeing that Akito didn't say anything to that, he laughed dryly and said, 'oh, I see, we are in trouble, aren't we? What did you do? Steal grandpa's car so you'd impress your ex-girlfriend?'

'No, I just…'

'You know, I think I've just had a brilliant idea,' the guy said and the menacing way in which he was looking at Akito made the teenager want to run away as fast as he could, 'I was about to take Ryo-chan to a love hotel with me but, since I appreciate it when someone shares my fondness for vintage cars, I'll make you a proposition.'

Akito swallowed and said:

'What do I have to do?'

'It's fairly easy: we race, if you win, you save your neck, the girl and your car. You lose, I keep the girl, your car and I tell these two guys here to use you for their kickboxing practice.'

'Do you know that she's underage?' Akito said quickly getting beyond desperate.

'Do you think I give a damn?' the guy replied smirking, 'so, what's it going to be?'

Not really having given that much of a choice, Akito took a deep, steadying breath before nodding slowly.

'Okay, fine…'

'Great, I'll go and get my car,' he said to him then, talking to the two bouncers, he said, 'keep an eye on Ryo-chan while we race.'

A few instants later, the two guys reappeared with a distressed looking Ryoko then, they all heard a car driving towards them.

Akito could not believe his eyes: in front of him, he saw a burgundy Honda Civic EG6. He couldn't tell what sort of modifications the guy had done to his car but Akito knew that the car had to be nearly twenty years old and, judging by the sound its engine made, it had also been heavily tuned.

'Akito…' he heard Ryoko say, sounding a lot soberer than before.

Akito turned to face her and said:

'You stay here, I'll come and pick you up later...'

He climbed into the car knowing that he had never been anymore nervous and scared in his whole life. Had he been driving one of the Toyota V40A or even his grandfather's GC8, he would have probably felt fairly confident but he wasn't driving any of those two cars: he was driving his father's AE86 and he really didn't think he'd be able to do anywhere near as well with a car which seemed to be out of his control. And he couldn't even run away because he could hardly leave Ryoko there…

'Crap,' he muttered slapping his hand angrily against the steering wheel. He was extremely upset with Ryoko for numerous reasons but he was even angrier at himself for having allowed the guy to trick him so easily into all this madness.

Taking another deep, steadying breath, he forced himself to start thinking positive. He had ridden in Kyosuke's car numerous times up and down Mt Akagi and he knew the course almost as well as he knew Mt Akina so, even with all the snow that still covered parts of the road, his extensive knowledge of the course gave him at least one advantage. He just hoped this guy wasn't also a regular here…

The race finally started and, given the unexpected nature of the event, they didn't even have a proper countdown: the EG6 just took off leaving the AE86 behind.

So much for the fair play, he thought bitterly as he floored the accelerator to try and catch up with the Honda.

'Shit,' Akito said breathlessly as he tried to get the AE86 to drift through the first corner of the course and seeing how incredibly hard it was for him to do something as relatively simple as drifting through a slow corner, only strengthened Akito's belief that he was going to end this race falling down a cliff.

Somehow, he managed to catch up with the Honda and, as he glued the front of the 86 with the EG6's rear, he noticed something that made him feel even gloomier: the guy driving the Honda was actually pretty good.

Just great, Akito thought as he added that factor to the huge list of things that were against him in this race.

Fearing he wouldn't be able to keep up with the EG6 for much longer, he started looking for chances to overtake it and, as they entered each corner, Akito tried to see if he could somehow stick his car into the very limited spaces the Honda left open.

Then he saw it.

At first he thought it was his desperate imagination which was trying to make things seem a lot easier than they really were but he did have the impression that, every time the Honda entered a right hand corner, for some reason, its driver seemed to stick to the inside of it, leaving a lot of space open on the outside.

Akito knew that there were a couple of wide, right hand corners coming up just ahead of them so, he decided to check out if his theory was true and after they tackled the first of the right turns, realising his impression had been spot on, he made his mind up to overtake the Honda as they got into the following corner. Flooring the accelerator, he drove through it at full throttle and with the rear left hand side tyre completely outside the tarmac, Akito then started praying for all that was holy so there would be enough space for the AE86 to go through.

'Please, please, please…' he kept repeating as if it were some sort of religious litany while he saw that he was, in fact, leaving the burgundy car behind him.

Then, and just as Akito thought he had managed to pass him, the EG6's driver turned his car towards the 86 using its front bumper to hit the Toyota's rear one. The impact made the AE86 lose its rear traction and as Akito lost control of the car, it started sliding horribly fast towards the guardrail. The collision that followed was probably the most dreadful sensation Akito had ever felt in his short life and, hearing the left side taillight as it shattered against the guardrail made the boy feel even worse than if the two wardrobes had actually used him as a punch bag.

Thankfully, his racer's instincts helped him to somehow regain control of the car and, pressing the accelerator as far as it went, Akito managed to get the car to go forward.

This, not only saved the car from an even worse crash, but it probably saved his life too because, at that precise instant, the EG6 seemed to skid over something, a patch of ice more than likely, sending it straight into the section of the guardrail which had just been vacated by the AE86.

Akito had to use the handbrake to stop the car's inertia, making it do a u-turn that got the car to point towards the uphill.

Only then he saw that the Honda had part of its front completely smashed against the guardrail.

'Holy crap,' Akito whispered and, knowing he was probably being a complete bastard by listening to his survival instinct, he didn't think twice about leaving the guy behind so Akito inserted the first gear and, driving as fast as he could, he made his way back towards the warehouse where he'd be faced with yet another problem: how on earth was he going to get Ryoko away from the two gorillas?

The answer to this question presented itself as he saw the girl sitting there, all by herself.

'Akito!' she shouted and, as she got up, he noticed for the first time that she wasn't even using her crutch anymore. What shocked him even more was to see that she had her beautiful face drenched with her tears.

'GET IN THE CAR!' Akito shouted with his voice sounding very strained due to all the accumulated tension.

Just as she started running towards the car, limping quite a lot, the two bouncers noticed what Ryoko was doing. This made Akito insert the first gear and prepare himself to take off the minute Ryoko got into the car. He then drove away from the warehouse not even bothering to check where he was going: all that mattered to him now was to put as much distance as possible between the 86 and those crazy sons of a bitch.

A few minutes later, and probably because of all the stress, he found that his limbs were shaking so badly that he needed to stop so, pulling over to the side of the road, he parked the AE86.

'Akito…' he heard Ryoko whisper.

'Shut up,' he said with all the coldness he could muster.

'But…'

'I said: shut up,' he repeated as he forced himself to get out of the car.

Still trembling rather violently, he felt his stomach contract in a very painful manner and not giving a damn about looking like a pussy in front of Ryoko, he bent forward and started throwing up.

About five minutes later, and even though he wasn't feeling any better, he decided to go and check what he'd done to the poor AE86 so, crouching next to the left side of the car, he saw that the damage report included several ugly scratches, a huge dent and a broken taillight.

'Dad's going to have me skinned alive,' he muttered to himself as he put his hand on top of the dent almost as though as he were trying to soothe the car, 'I'm so sorry,' he said then as he felt a couple of tears burning in his eyes.

'Akito…' he heard Ryoko say.

Lifting his head up, he saw that she was standing next to him.

'Let's get you home,' he said as he got up.

'I'm sorry…'

Akito looked at her with such a disgusted expression on his face that it made her gasp.

'Get in the car,' he ordered.

It didn't take long for Akito to find his bearings so, soon, the two of them made their way to the Takahashi's residence without exchanging a single word in the entire trip. Only when Akito stopped the car outside the girl's home, she allowed herself to speak:

'Akito…'

'Just go home, your parents were very worried about you,' Akito said, still speaking with his voice clipped by all the fury he felt.

'Thank you for…'

'Just go!' Akito cried making his anger even more obvious.

Ryoko flinched visibly before opening the passenger's side door and, as she climbed out of the car, Akito saw that she was crying again. Steeling himself against the urge which wanted him to take her in his arms so he could soothe her, he almost punched the shifter into the first gear and drove off, away from her, the minute Ryoko closed the door.

As he got closer to Shibukawa, he felt that all the anger and tension he'd been feeling up to now were quickly becoming such an intense anxiety that, by the time he entered the road where the Fujiwara's lived, Akito's stomach had become a frozen rock which seemed to get bigger and heavier as he approached his house.

Akito turned the AE86 towards his home's driveway and then he saw something which made him think that the fear he'd felt when crashing the car was nothing compared to the petrifying terror he felt seeing his father there, standing by the front entrance, arms crossed and an enraged expression on his usually calm face.

_To be continued…_


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter Twelve_

If he could have got away with it, Akito would have rather stayed in the car forever but knowing that any attempt at postponing what he had brought upon himself would only make things a lot worse, he decided to, very slowly, get out of the car as he braced himself for what would probably be the worst reprimand in history.

'Living room, now,' Takumi said, his voice shaking with fury.

As he complied with the order, Akito couldn't bring himself to look at his father for he didn't want to see again the terrible expression on his old man's face.

'Sit down,' Takumi ordered as soon as both of them had reached a deserted living room and, while Akito took his usual spot on the couch, he wondered where the rest of his family were.

'Now,' Takumi started and Akito noticed that his father wasn't sitting down, 'I want you to think very carefully before you answer this question to me.'

He stopped as though as he wanted to give Akito enough time to understand the sentence.

'I would like to know why on earth you thought that you could leave your six year old sister alone in the house. Do you know that you scared the life out of her when she woke up and she found that you were gone? It's very lucky that we've taught her how to use the phone…'

'I…' Akito whispered.

'I would also like to know what on earth went through your head when you decided to take my car not only without my permission but, what's even worse, without having your drivers' license. Do you have any idea what would have happened if the police had stopped you?'

Akito nodded while trying to make himself look as small as possible, kind of hoping that if he tried hard enough, he would eventually disappear.

'Now, can you explain to me how you even thought you could get away with taking my car, leaving your sister alone and, on top of that, coming back way beyond your curfew?' Takumi asked.

Still unable to look at his father, Akito decided that making up something was probably the best option he had for there was absolutely no way he could tell his father about what had happened that night. For this reason, and for the first time in his life, he lied to his father:

'I just wanted to take the AE86 for a spin, I'm sorry.'

'I can't believe this,' Takumi said in such a disappointed tone of voice that it made Akito finally look up at him and Akito saw his father as he paced up and down the room shaking his head in disbelief.

Takumi stopped walking and, looking at his son, he said:

'You know, I thought I had brought up an honest kid.'

Akito looked at his father with a confused expression on his face. What was going on in here?'

'Keisuke called earlier,' his father explained, 'and I spent several minutes listening as he shouted at me.'

'What?' Akito managed to ask.

'He was furious with you when he found out that you had taken Ryoko with the AE86 to go for a drive in Mt Akagi and, to be honest, I don't blame him.'

'What?' Akito asked again unable to believe his ears.

'At least Ryoko was honest enough to tell the truth to her parents,' Takumi said reassuming his pacing around the room.

'Dad…' Akito started.

'If all you wanted was to celebrate Valentine's Day with your girlfriend, all you needed to do was ask,' Takumi said now sounding miserable instead of angry, 'you lied to me and to your mother, you left your sister alone and, what's even worse, you also lied to Kyoko when she specifically asked you if you had seen Ryoko.'

By this point, Akito knew that anything he said would just make things worse so, lowering his head, he muttered:

'I'm sorry.'

'No, you aren't sorry yet but you will be,' he said with such an icy tone that Akito felt a shiver ran all the way through his spine, 'from now on, and since you've clearly proven that you aren't responsible enough to do anything else, you are to leave this house exclusively to go to school. Except for that, you're grounded until further notice.'

'But Dad, the championship…' Akito asked raising his head so sharply that he felt a new wave of sickness coming back at him.

His father let out a dry snort before he said:

'You seriously don't expect me to let you compete in the karting championship after the stunt you've pulled tonight, do you?'

Akito wanted to scream until his vocal cords would give up on him. Instead, he shook his head.

'Now go to bed, it's past midnight and you've got school tomorrow. Don't bother setting your alarm because you're not coming with me for the deliveries either,' Takumi said and, with this, he turned round to walk towards the door.

'Dad…I…'

'What?' Takumi asked without bothering to look at his son.

Akito swallowed for he knew that what he was about to say would piss his father off even more, if that was actually possible.

'I've crashed the AE86,' he said with his voice barely above a whisper.

Takumi turned sharply to face him then, he ran out of the room to go back outside leaving Akito with the doubt of whether to follow his father and see him get even madder or stay within the relative safety of their living room. He didn't even have the time to decide for, just a few moments later, he heard his father came back into the house. Akito saw his father bypass the living room as he headed straight for the stairs.

This made him understand the meaning of the old saying that, sometimes, silence could be louder than any scream.

The next day, Akito got up from his bed without having slept at all. He had a huge headache and felt very poorly but since he didn't want to cause any more problems, he decided to get dressed and go to the kitchen where, even though his stomach still felt like a rock of ice, he would try to force some food into it.

When he entered the kitchen, he saw that his little sister was there eating her breakfast.

'I'm sorry,' she said dropping a half eaten toast on her plate and getting up from her chair to walk up to her brother.

'Why?' Akito asked feeling all confused again.

'Because I got you in trouble,' Haruko said with her face cringing as though as she was about to start crying.

Akito crouched next to his sister and, patting her head, he said:

'You didn't do anything wrong, I shouldn't have left you alone.'

Haruko looked at him frowning obviously not very convinced about this.

'I shouldn't have called Mum and Dad, I should have been braver,' she insisted and Akito looked at her and, very seriously, he said:

'No, you did what you're supposed to do, I'm the one who's messed up, okay?'

Haruko nodded and Akito gave her a quick peck on the top of her head which made the little girl smile. He then got up and felt yet another wave of sickness. Gosh, he really needed to eat something.

'Akito, let me make you some breakfast,' Natsuki said entering the kitchen.

'No, it's fine, I'm just going to grab a couple of these,' he said pointing at the toasts Natsuki had made earlier for her daughter for he didn't think his stomach would cope with much more than that.

'Okay, this is your lunch,' she said handing him his bento box.

'Thanks, and…I'm…' Akito started but Natsuki put her hand on his shoulder and said:

'Forget about it, I'm just glad you're okay. Your father and I were very worried about you.'

Brilliant, now I feel even worse, Akito thought miserably as he put his coat on so he could leave the house. Walking down the lane he saw that the Toyota was still parked outside the garage where he'd left it the previous night, this meant that his father had done the deliveries with the old GC8.

'Oh gosh,' he muttered seeing that in the cold light of the morning, the dent on the 86 looked even worse. He wasn't as good as Kyosuke when it came to fixing up cars but he knew enough to realise that repairing the AE86 would be neither easy nor cheap.

That's right: on top of his freedom, he would probably lose his pocket money too.

'Things are just getting better and better,' Akito said darkly as he walked away from his house and towards his school.

Meanwhile, on his way to college Kyosuke stopped his RZ-1 outside his old school having just given a lift to both Seisuke and Ryoko. Then, as he had agreed with his younger brother the previous evening, they cornered their baby cousin near the school's entrance.

'Now, you're going to tell us the truth,' Kyosuke said using his most serious and scariest tone of voice.

'Yeah, because there is no way we're buying that bullshit you've told your parents,' Seisuke added, sounding even scarier.

'I've already told you…' Ryoko started getting positively freaked out.

'Look, we've known Akito since forever and we know he wouldn't do anything as stupid as that,' Kyosuke said.

'Yeah, he would rather die than going against his father's orders,' Seisuke added.

'Akito knows perfectly well that the AE86 is off-limits, I just cannot believe he took it just like that, only to take you for a drive with it,' Kyosuke said.

'Yeah, even less because he believes you two have split up,' Seisuke added.

'What did you just say?' Kyosuke asked to his younger brother, turning sharply to face him.

'A few days ago Akito told me she asked him to choose between her and racing,' Seisuke said looking at his cousin with a gaze full of venom.

'Did you do that?' Kyosuke asked Ryoko completely unable to believe his ears.

Ryoko nodded as a couple of tears started rolling down her cheeks.

'Yeah and since for a reason that's beyond me, he actually loves her, he couldn't make the choice so she chose for him and broke up with him,' Seisuke said spitting out the words as though as if he were disgusted by every single one of them.

'I can't believe this,' Kyosuke said shaking his head as he walked away from his brother and cousin.

'So, are you going to tell us what happened last night, or not?' Seisuke asked.

'Go to hell, both of you!' Ryoko shouted now getting as angry as her two cousins.

'What's going on in here?' Asaba-sensei said hearing the girl's shouts.

Ryoko took the chance to walk away from both Takahashi brothers as she followed the teacher into the building which housed the junior high classrooms.

'Aniki, something's fishy here,' Seisuke said.

'I know,' Kyosuke agreed, 'let's go and see Akito after school.'

'Yeah, okay, I'll see you later,' Seisuke said as he joined his group of fellow third years. Kyosuke smiled as he saw that there was a new girl holding his younger brother's arm.

A few hours later, Takumi got into the AE86 to take it to Itsuki, Iketani and Kenji's garage. Takumi hadn't even had the courage to tell his father about the crash for he wasn't too sure his old man's heart could cope with such bad news and when he got to his friends' business, he saw Iketani there, kneeling next to a Mitsubishi. The older man, seeing Akina's favourite car coming into his garage, got up so he could greet Takumi properly.

'Hey man! You've finally decided to pay us a visit! Do you need us to give the AE86 a check up?' Iketani said cheerfully.

'No, er…' Takumi started then, getting out of the Toyota, he took Iketani to the left side of the car so his long time friend could see the damage.

'Holy crap! Takumi, what have you done?' Iketani exclaimed and Takumi wanted to laugh seeing Iketani's utterly horrified face, only that the occasion definitely called for a more solemn attitude.

'Takumi!' he heard Itsuki shout as the short man ran towards them, 'what are you doing…' he interrupted himself seeing the very grave expressions both Takumi and Iketani sported, 'what's wrong?' he asked instead.

Iketani, probably not having the strength to speak, just pointed at the AE86's dent.

'Oh my gosh, what did you do?' Itsuki asked.

'It wasn't me, it was Akito,' Takumi finally said slightly annoyed that both of his friends had thought him capable of damaging his own car.

'Akito? But he's not allowed to…'

'He took the car last night without permission,' Takumi explained, interrupting his best friend.

'Why would he do something like that?' Iketani asked and Takumi proceeded to explain both men the whole episode.

'Wow,' Iketani gasped, 'But Akito's such a good kid…'

'I know,' Takumi said sombrely.

'Hang on in there,' Itsuki said, 'I just can't believe Akito would do something like that without a very good reason…I mean…'

'I know, Itsuki, I know,' Takumi repeated, 'he's lying to us. If you ask me, I think he's trying to protect Ryoko. I just hope that the severity of the punishment I've imposed on him will convince Akito to tell me the truth.'

'I don't know, not allowing him to compete in the Karting Championship it's a bit too harsh, isn't it?' Iketani commented.

'Do you know how bad I felt when I told him he couldn't drive anymore? I know perfectly well how he feels about cars besides, it's the first time I have to ground him,' Takumi said bending his head down as if his responsibility as a father was a bit too weighty for him.

After a few moments of silence, Takumi asked:

'Do you guys think this can be fixed?'

'Let me see…' Iketani said crouching next to the dent as he started examining the damage, then he said, 'the bodywork can easily be repaired, we'll probably need to repaint the whole thing but, to be honest, the car could do with a good repaint anyway.'

'Okay,' Takumi said nodding.

'However, the main problem is the taillight,' Iketani commented.

'Why is that?' Takumi asked.

'Well, we need to replace the whole thing, not just the cover and, well, Takumi, we're talking about a car that's over thirty years old, finding the part we need is not going to be easy.'

Takumi sighed.

'I see.'

'But we'll try, don't worry, we'll fix it,' Itsuki hurried to say seeing Takumi's depressed face, 'even if I have to call every single scrap yard in Japan, I'll find you the part.'

'Yeah, Itsuki's right, we'll find it, don't worry,' Iketani said.

'How much is going to cost?' Takumi asked.

'Don't worry about that either,' Iketani replied shaking his head.

'Guys, I am going to pay for the work,' Takumi insisted.

'Yeah, whatever,' Itsuki said making a dismissing gesture with his hand, 'now, who wants a coffee?'

'Itsuki…' Takumi started then, his phone ring tune interrupted him at mid-sentence, 'hello?'

Itsuki and Iketani watched him as Takumi listened to whoever had called him.

'I'll be there in a minute,' he said, with this, he hanged up as he looked at his two friends with a panicked expression on his face.

'What's wrong?' Itsuki said.

'It was Natsuki,' Takumi said with his voice filled with anxiety, 'Akito's collapsed in his classroom and he's been taken to the hospital.'

_To be continued…_


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter Thirteen_

It didn't take long for Takumi to get to the only medical centre the city of Shibukawa had and, parking the car he'd borrowed from Iketani, he ran towards the hospital's reception having a very weird feeling of déjà-vu. In fact, a bit more than fifteen years ago, he'd been in a very similar situation the day when he'd found out Minami had died. Feeling a knot constricting his throat, Takumi prayed so that, this time, things wouldn't be quite as dramatic as they'd been then.

Inside the hospital, he found a very distressed looking Natsuki waiting for him sitting at a waiting room near the admission's desk.

'Where's he?' he asked, not even bothering with any greeting.

'The doctors are with him,' Natsuki said as she hugged to her Akito's school bag and coat.

'What happened?'

'I don't know,' Natsuki replied, 'I wasn't there but his teacher told me that one minute he looked fine, then he just fainted falling off his chair.'

She bit her lip as though as she was trying to keep herself from crying and this only made Takumi feel even worse.

'He was okay this morning, wasn't he?' Takumi asked.

'I think so, he looked rather tired but again, he's looked that way for quite a while,' Natsuki said.

Takumi passed his left hand over his face as if this action could, somehow, remove some of the intense angst which seemed to be slowly taking possession of his whole being.

'I was too harsh with him,' he whispered as he, too, felt like bursting into tears.

'Takumi…' Natsuki started then, a noise made her stop speaking.

It was a mobile phone's ring tone, a very familiar sounding one.

'It's Akito's,' Takumi said pointing at the bag Natsuki still had pressed against her chest.

Natsuki opened the bag and, indeed, she heard that the boy's phone was ringing. She took it out of the tiny pocket where Akito kept it and, looking at the display, she said:

'It's Kyosuke.'

Takumi took the phone from her hand and, pressing the button, he answered it:

'Hello?'

'Er…Takumi-san? Er…it's Kyosuke, obviously,' the young man said sounding rather confused by the fact that his friend's father was answering the phone instead of Akito.

'Kyosuke, listen, we've got a problem,' Takumi said.

'Yeah, I heard, look, I don't know what you guys believe but I don't think Akito…'

'Kyosuke, we're at Shibukawa's hospital, Akito is…' Takumi stopped at mid-sentence not really knowing what he was supposed to say.

'What?' he heard Kyosuke shout then, even before Takumi could finish his sentence, Kyosuke said, 'we're on our way.'

The phone went dead and Takumi looked at Natsuki with an expression which as a mix of confusion and anxiety then, the two of them decided to go to a nearby waiting room and sit down as they waited for a doctor to come to them.

They hadn't been like that for more than twenty minutes when three teenagers came rushing into the room.

'Takumi-san!' Kyosuke said, 'how's Akito?'

'We don't know, no one has told us anything yet,' Takumi replied.

'What? Come on, what in the heck are they doing?' Seisuke complained.

'Hey, this hospital is nowhere near as efficient as the ones your parents run,' Takumi said with a half a smirk.

'Obviously,' Seisuke said looking around himself disapprovingly.

'Anyway, you,' Kyosuke said turning to face a very distraught looking Ryoko, 'you better tell them what you've just told us.'

'Yeah, you owe Akito at least this much,' Seisuke said frowning at his cousin.

Ryoko took one step forward and, bowing as deeply as she could, she said:

'I'm so sorry Takumi-san, Natsuki-san, this is all my fault.'

Both Natsuki and Takumi looked at the girl clearly not understanding anything.

She then got up keeping only her head down as she proceeded to explain to Akito's parents about what had really happened the previous night.

After the explanation, Takumi felt that his legs could no longer support him so he sat back down with his wife who looked to be more or less as appalled by the whole thing as Takumi was.

'I hope you're happy,' Seisuke said with a reproaching tone of voice.

Ryoko shook her head and started crying.

'I'm so sorry,' she sobbed.

Takumi looked as if he was trying to come up with something to say when, at long last, a doctor decided to show up.

'Are you the parents?'

Takumi and Natsuki got up.

'Yes, we are, is our son okay?' Takumi managed to ask.

'Yes, he will be,' the doctor replied but, for some reason, Takumi felt like the knot tying his throat tightened even more. He also felt that Natsuki's grasp on his hand tightened too.

'What's wrong with him?' Natsuki asked.

'We've been running some tests to rule out any other possibilities and we've come to the conclusion that he just suffered a major nervous breakdown. Has he had any reason to be stressed recently?'

Takumi and Natsuki looked at each other, then at Ryoko and, finally, back at the doctor before Takumi nodded and said:

'Yes, he's been overdoing things a bit.'

'Well, now he's sleeping because we've given him a very mild sedative so he could get some rest, however, I will ask you to please keep an eye on him and to make sure he doesn't do quite so much again.'

Both Natsuki and Takumi nodded.

'I don't need to tell you how rare it is for such a young boy to collapse like this, so I really hope you'll be taking better care of him,' the doctor said clearly dropping any diplomacy.

'We will,' Takumi said sounding positively mortified.

'Okay, you two can go into his room so he's not alone when he wakes up. You,' the doctor said looking at the three teenagers, 'will have to wait here.'

With this the doctor started walking out of the room followed by both Natsuki and Takumi.

As soon as the three adults had left the waiting room, Ryoko broke down and started sobbing so desperately that both Kyosuke and Seisuke forgot they were very angry at her.

'Hey,' Kyosuke said putting his arm around Ryoko's shoulders.

'I'm so sorry…I…' she started but her voice cracked and she crushed her face onto Kyosuke's chest as he tried his best to soothe her. Seisuke remained immobile, biting his lip worried about what would happen next.

A few minutes later, Takumi and Natsuki were sitting by their son's bedside.

'Oh crap,' Takumi said all the sudden.

'What?' Natsuki said getting even more worried than she'd been up to then.

'Haruko, we forgot to pick her up from school!' Takumi said getting up but Natsuki, laughing softly, took his hand and forced him to sit back down.

'Don't worry, I asked your father to go and pick her up for us. She's at the tofu shop with him.'

'Ah, I see. Thanks,' Takumi said.

'Don't mention it.'

'Although I don't know whether I should be even more worried,' Takumi said.

'Why?' Natsuki asked looking confused.

'I just don't think my dad is a good influence on Haruko, what is he going to get her into next? The art of tofu making?' Takumi asked sarcastically.

Natsuki laughed again and, smiling tenderly, she said:

'Well, at least making tofu isn't as dangerous as driving karts, and, after all, it's very useful to know how to make your own tofu.'

'That's true,' Takumi said smiling too.

'Dad?' they heard a whisper coming from Akito's bed.

'Akito!' Takumi said, smile gone, as he got up from his chair once more.

'What happened? Where am I?' Akito asked with a croaky voice.

'You fainted at school,' Natsuki said getting up too.

'What?' Akito whispered with a dismayed expression, 'that's just great! Geez, I'm such a pussy,' he complained miserably.

'No you're not. You're an exceptional person,' Natsuki said firmly.

'Much better than I ever hoped you'd be,' Takumi added, the knot in his throat quickly coming back.

'Okay guys, I'm dying, aren't I? Because there's no other way you'd be this nice to me after what I've done.'

'Son, we do know what you've done. Ryoko's just told us the truth,' Takumi explained.

'What?'

'And we are so very proud of you,' Natsuki said.

'Granted, you could have handled things a bit better, like, I don't know, you could have called me,' Takumi said, thinking that a bit of advice was in order, 'but, in any case, you've behaved admirably.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, you probably did exactly what I would have done,' Takumi said and Natsuki suddenly had a very suspicious-looking fit of coughing.

This made Takumi glare at her for he really didn't want his son to know that he had already acted that way before. Twice, if he also counted the time he'd gone to rescue Minami from that bastard of her manager…

'Does this mean that I'm no longer grounded?' Akito asked looking hopeful.

Takumi sighed audibly and, shaking his head, he said:

'No, you're no longer grounded.'

'So, just to be clear, am I allowed to drive again?'

'Yes,' Takumi said and Natsuki frowned but remained silent, 'in fact, what would you say if we start doing Akina's downhill with the AE86?'

'What?' Akito said springing up from his bed then, remembering the car had a huge dent on it, he dropped himself back onto his pillows and said, 'but, what about the crash?'

'Don't worry, we'll get it fixed,' Takumi said then, adopting a much more serious tone, he said, 'but you've got to promise me that you'll never do something like this again.'

'I swear: never again,' Akito said looking equally serious.

'Because, whereas the AE86 can be either repaired or replaced, if anything happened to you…'

'Dad, I get it,' Akito said seeing that his father looked dangerously close to burst into tears.

'Good. Don't scare me like this ever again, okay?' Takumi said.

'I won't, I promise,' Akito said shaking his head then, as if it had just occurred to him, he asked, 'when have you guys seen Ryoko?'

'She's here,' Natsuki said, 'she came with her cousins.'

'I want to speak to her,' Akito said with a determined expression on his face.

'Akito…'

'Please Dad, there's something I need to tell her.'

'Okay, but just for a few minutes,' Takumi said.

'I'll go and get her,' Natsuki said getting up and, getting out of the room, she walked all the way back to the waiting room where Akito's two best friends and girlfriend were.

'Natsuki-san! Is Akito awake?' Kyosuke said seeing his friend's mother there.

'Yes, he is. He still needs to get some rest but before he does that, he said he needs to speak to you,' Natsuki said looking at Ryoko.

'Me?' the girl asked.

'Yes, you,' Natsuki replied, trying her best to sound as neutral as possible feeling once more grateful that her job as a school teacher had trained her to remain calm at almost all times.

'Go,' Kyosuke ordered her.

'Akito will probably see you two later on,' Natsuki explained.

'Don't worry, we can wait for as long as it takes,' Seisuke said.

As Natsuki and Ryoko walked towards Akito's room, Natsuki said:

'You've upset Akito quite a lot…'

'I know…' Ryoko said interrupting Akito's mother.

'You've upset Akito quite a lot,' Natsuki said starting again, 'but this only means that he cares about you a very great deal. I'm not sure why you behaved the way you did but you must have had your reasons.'

Ryoko nodded to that.

'In any case,' Natsuki continued, 'whatever he wants to tell you, keep in mind that right now he's understandably upset with you and, just like his father, Akito can be quite unforgiving when he's angry.'

Ryoko swallowed looking even more scared.

'That said, you should know that, a long time ago I did something that upset my husband a lot and even though it took him a long time to do so, he managed to forgive me. I'm sure Akito won't be mad at you forever.'

'I understand,' Ryoko said.

'Fine, go inside then, my husband should leave you two alone,' Natsuki said pushing Ryoko gently towards the room's door.

As she stepped into the room she saw Akito's father getting up and, looking at her, he said:

'Just a few minutes.'

Ryoko nodded and then Takumi left them alone. Only then the girl looked at Akito as he tried to sit up on his bed.

'Hey,' she said.

'Ryoko,' he started, refusing to look at her in the eye, 'before all of this happened, you asked me to choose between you and racing, didn't you?'

'Yes but…' Ryoko said.

'I almost risked losing what's more precious to me than my own life,' Akito continued as though as she hadn't interrupted him.

'What is that?' Ryoko asked wishing he'd look at her instead of at his lap.

'My father's respect and trust. There's nothing that's worth more to me than knowing that my father respects and trusts me. I was this close to losing both,' he said putting his thumb and finger very close together.

'Akito…'

'You asked me to choose,' he repeated, 'and I've made my choice: I choose racing.'

'Akito, no…' Ryoko said sounding very desperate.

'Please, don't make this even more difficult,' Akito said and, for the first time, he looked at her.

Ryoko saw the intense pain in the boy's eyes and that startled her more than if someone had slapped her so, realising that she probably didn't have any other choice and knowing that she probably deserved what she had got, she turned round and as she grasped the door's knob, she said:

'I'm very sorry.'

'Me too,' Akito replied.

With this Ryoko opened the door and as walked out of the room, she remembered that she still had to face her parents.

_To be continued…_


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter Fourteen_

Confessing the truth to her cousins had been difficult enough for her, even if the urgency of the situation had left her with very little options. Telling Akito's parents had been even worse but, as Ryoko proceeded to explain the whole thing to her parents, she felt like running away to the other end of the world.

'So, what's this thing you need to talk to us about?' Kyoko asked as she and her husband took a seat on the couch in front of the one where Ryoko sat.

For this conversation, Ryoko had wanted for the three of them to be on their own in the rarely used sitting room in their house, rather than the larger, common living room where the two Takahashi families usually spent most of their time at home.

'First of all, I want you to promise to me that you're going to listen to what I need to tell you and that you won't start shouting until I finish,' Ryoko said looking at her father.

'Okay,' Keisuke said starting to frown.

'Does this have anything to do about what you and Akito did last night?' Kyoko asked.

'Yes,' she said and then she saw her father spring up from the sofa.

'WHAT HAS HE DONE TO YOU?' he shouted.

'Dad, no shouting, remember?'

Keisuke forced himself to sit down and, only then, Ryoko started retelling her parents about what Akito had actually done for her.

'So, let me get this straight: Akito took the AE86 so he could go and get you away from that party?' Kyoko asked her daughter for Keisuke was in too much of a shock to be able to speak.

'Yes,' she nodded.

'And he got involved in a race because of you?'

'Yes,' Ryoko said.

'That's so romantic,' Kyoko said visibly moved.

'Romantic?' Keisuke finally managed to say, 'Kyoko, he could have killed himself with a car as dangerous as the AE86! I don't think I'd be able to race driving that monster, let alone a fifteen year old kid!'

Both mother and daughter now sported identical mortified expressions.

'So you lied to us,' Keisuke continued, 'and you let us all blame Akito for something that it was all your fault.'

'Yes,' Ryoko said fighting with all her might so she wouldn't start crying.

'I can't believe I shouted at Takumi for this,' Keisuke said, more to himself than to his wife and daughter, 'I'm going to call him so I can apologise,' he said getting up from the sofa.

'Dad, he already knows,' Ryoko said then, bracing herself for the worse, she added, 'Kyosuke, Seisuke and I have just seen Akito and his parents.'

'You went to their house?' Kyoko asked.

'No, to the hospital, Akito's been taken there because he collapsed in his classroom,' Ryoko said as quickly as she could.

'What?' Keisuke asked while his wife gasped while covering her mouth with one hand.

'He's going to be okay, the doctor said he'd suffered some sort of breakdown…'

'A…a…n-nervous breakdown?' Kyoko stammered, 'at his age?'

Ryoko nodded.

'Oh wow,' Keisuke gasped with his expression strained due to all the guilt that was starting to feel.

'Poor Akito, he must have felt so bad, crashing his father's car and all,' Kyoko said looking dangerously close to burst up into tears, 'and he's been juggling so many things at the same time…'

'Well, there's one thing he won't have to worry about anymore,' Ryoko said with a very small voice.

'What do you mean?' Keisuke asked.

'We've broken up,' Ryoko said and, before her father could speak again, she said, 'I forced him to choose between racing and me and, although he didn't want to make a choice, everything that's happened has probably made him realise that I'd distract him from his racing career too much so he's now chosen racing over me.'

At this point, Ryoko no longer bothered to contain her tears so she started sobbing quite loudly.

'Ryoko…' the girl heard her mother say and, as Ryoko looked up at her she saw a very disappointed look on her mother's face.

'I made a mistake, I know…'

'Yes you have. You have no idea what you've asked Akito to do!' Kyoko exclaimed.

'Mum I just…'

'Ryoko, Akito is a racer, just like his father and his grandfather were before him. He's been raised by two men who, instead of blood, have gasoline running through their veins. Asking Akito to give up racing to be with you is just as stupid as asking…'

'I think she's got the idea,' Keisuke said seeing that his daughter was looking more and more distraught.

'No, she hasn't,' Kyoko said being unusually harsh, 'Keisuke, I know very well what it means to be a racer because I used to be one. But I also know what it's like to be on the other side. Don't you remember what I, what we went through before we got together?'

'Yes, of course I do,' Keisuke replied.

'Ryoko, you really have no idea of what you've done! Akito was prepared to let you into his heart and give up part of the time he could have been driving so he could be with you. Not many racers are as generous as that.'

Keisuke remained quiet for he had been one of them.

'By showing him how much trouble you are, you've put him in a position where you've left him with no other choice but to give you up and dedicate himself to his racing.'

'I know Mum, I know,' Ryoko sobbed, 'I'm just so fed up of racing here, racing there, geez, you guys don't talk about anything else in this house!'

'What? That's not true,' Kyoko said.

'Yeah, of course, hospitals,' Ryoko said sarcastically, 'it seems like one can't be a Takahashi if one's not a doctor or is heavily involved in racing!'

Keisuke and Kyoko looked at each other in consternation.

'Baby that's not…'

'Dad, don't even try to say that it's not true!' Ryoko said interrupting her father, 'you know, there are some times when I really think Seisuke's right when he teases me saying I must have been adopted.'

'You think you were adopted?' Keisuke asked with his eyes wide with disbelief.

'Honey, I can guarantee you you're not adopted,' Kyoko said, 'the stitches they did on me when you were born are proof of that.'

'Ouch,' Ryoko complained, 'I don't think I wanted to know that.'

'Me neither,' Keisuke said frowning looking almost as disgusted as his daughter.

'Is that the reason why you didn't have any more children?' Ryoko asked.

'No, well, not the only one,' Kyoko replied, 'I didn't have an easy first trimester when I was pregnant with you but, the reason why your father and I didn't want to have any more kids is…'

'…is because you are perfect,' Keisuke said, 'you were perfect as a little baby, so beautiful and so absolutely adorable that I spent hours just staring at you trying to convince myself that you were real.'

'That's true,' Kyoko said smiling fondly at the memory, 'also, your father and I wanted to dedicate all our free time to you alone, that's why we didn't want to have any more children.'

'But if you had had another kid, maybe he or she would have liked racing.'

'So what if you don't like racing? You're still our daughter,' Keisuke said, 'and, like you said, there are more than enough racers and doctors in this family.'

'Well, it's not like I don't like cars, I mean, they're really useful and I'd like to get my driving license when I'm old enough.'

'And I'll be happy to teach you how to drive, if you want,' Keisuke said.

'What about ice skating, you still want to do it?' Kyoko asked.

'Mum, I don't know if,' Ryoko replied covering her injured knee with her hand.

'Akiko talked to your physiotherapist the other day and he says that you could be back on the ice within less than a month,' Kyoko said.

'Really? That soon?' Ryoko exclaimed.

'Yes, so, what do you say?'

'I'd love to, I really miss skating,' Ryoko said, 'besides, Akito said he would love to see me skate again.'

'Ryoko, don't go back to ice skating only because of Akito,' Kyoko said.

'No, I really like skating,' Ryoko started trying to find the words to describe it, 'it makes me feel like I can do anything.'

'Well, that's how we racers feel behind the wheel of a car,' Keisuke said.

'Wow,' Ryoko gasped, finally realising what she'd asked Akito to give up.

'Yeah, I think you've finally got it,' Kyoko said as though as she could read her daughter's thoughts.

'Do you think he'll ever forgive me?' Ryoko asked.

'I don't know baby,' Kyoko replied, 'but never underestimate the fact that he's probably been in love with you since you two were little more than toddlers.'

'Yeah, and if you want I can help him change his mind,' Keisuke said menacingly.

'Dad, no offence, but I don't think that's such a great idea,' Ryoko said shaking her head.

'I've got an idea,' Kyoko started all of a sudden, 'why don't we go out for dinner on our own?'

'That sounds great,' Keisuke agreed and, wiping the tears from her face, Ryoko nodded her approval too so, that night, and for the first time ever, the three of them enjoyed an evening on their own and, as a new rule, they didn't speak about anything which had tyres or was related to any form of healthcare.

A couple of weeks later, at four o'clock in the morning of Saturday, Akito and his father were onboard the newly repaired AE86 which, with its new paintwork and taillight, looked as good as new.

While they were at it, Itsuki and Iketani, with the special collaboration of Fujiwara Bunta, had done a major check up at every single part of the car and Takumi had noticed the difference the minute he'd turned the engine on: it sounded almost as good as it'd done over twenty years ago.

'What happened exactly when you lost control of the car?' Takumi asked his son as they started Mt Akina's uphill.

'Well, the guy hit the AE86's bumper and I lost all traction,' Akito said.

'Ah, you know there are ways to redistribute the weight so that you can regain traction before the car crashes, don't you?'

'Yeah, you and Keisuke-san have taught us those manoeuvres during the sessions at the centre,' Akito replied.

'Why didn't you use them?'

'Because...Dad, it was really weird,' Akito said, 'you know, maybe it was just because I was very nervous for, you know, everything.'

Takumi nodded while silently encouraging his son to go on.

'I don't know how to put this into words but, now I get why you guys prefer street racing to the races on circuits.'

'And why is that?' Takumi asked curious to find out what his son had figured out by himself.

'Well, while both kinds of racing are dangerous, when you race in a circuit, you know that there are rules and that everything is controlled by loads of people.'

'Uh-huh,' Takumi said.

'I think that when you race on the streets, you never know if the opponent is going to respect whichever rules you've agreed on and more importantly, once you're racing, it's you, your rival and the road, anything can happen…'

'Precisely,' Takumi said making his kid smile.

'That's why I didn't apply what you guys have taught us…I was really nervous about it all.'

'That kind of thing tends to happen when you're a newbie in street racing, which is why only the really good racers can master the streets,' Takumi said.

'Yes, but that's why you guys like it so much, it just…it gives you…'

'…a complete sense of freedom,' Takumi finished for him.

'Yeah, that's right,' Akito said, 'you can pretty much do whatever you want.'

'I'm glad you've figured all of this all by yourself,' Takumi said.

'You know that Seisuke's really mad because I've already had my first street race?' Akito commented.

Takumi laughed softly before saying:

'Not only that: you've also won a battle before he has.'

'I don't know if it counts thought,' Akito said.

'It does, if you're ahead…'

'…you win,' Akito finished for him grinning.

'Exactly,' Takumi said.

'Okay, I won, I'm just too freaking good,' Akito said with mock arrogance.

Takumi laughed as he stopped the car, making Akito realise that they had already arrived at the hotel where they delivered the tofu then, as his father got out of the car, Akito realised that even though his father had probably been drifting all the way up while going at over one hundred kilometres an hour, he hadn't even felt any of it.

This only increased his admiration for his father's extra smooth driving style.

'Get out of the car,' Akito heard his father say as he came back with the empty box.

'Why?' the teenager said as he complied with his father's order.

'Well, because when I said we'd start doing Mt Akina's downhill with the AE86, I meant that you were doing to be the one driving,' Takumi said.

'But Dad, this is your car…'

'Yeah, keep that in mind while you drive it,' Takumi said as he climbed into the passenger's side, 'if you crash it again, consider yourself grounded until you finish high school.'

'Got it: no more crashes,' Akito said nodding once as he, for the second time in his life, prepared himself to drive that monster of a car.

Akito turned the AE86's engine on and for a short while, he just sat there just listening to its sound.

'Okay son,' Takumi said taking him out of his reverie, 'until now, all you've learned are the skills you need to drive in a circuit. These skills, if used properly, can also be applied to the street races.'

'I'm all ears,' Akito said eagerly.

'Okay, the trick when you drive is to empty your mind.'

'Empty your mind?'

'Yeah, don't think of anything, by now your brain is already loaded with all the information you need, you just have to let your body decide what to do with it,' Takumi explained.

'But Dad, I…'

'Let's try it, okay?'

'Fine, what do I do?'

'I don't know, how about if you start driving?' Takumi said almost sarcastically.

'Ha, ha, very funny,' Akito said as he made the AE86 roll out of the car park and head towards the downhill.

'Okay, now do what I said. Don't think, just feel the car and let your body react to those sensations,' Takumi said.

Akito, making a gigantic effort, did what his father had told him to do noticing to his immense surprise that by doing so, driving the AE86 had become much easier. He also realised that, if he paid attention to what the car was transmitting to him, he could interact with it a lot better and even correct any potential mistakes.

Soon, he found that he and the Toyota understood each other remarkably well.

'Now, this is what I call drifting,' Takumi commented as he had to grab himself to the door's handle.

'You haven't seen anything yet,' Akito said smirking.

'Don't get cocky: we haven't even started yet.'

'I know, I still have a long way to go,' Akito finished the sentence for his father.

'You've got no idea,' Takumi said.

Akito just laughed as they came out of a corner managing to keep the warning bell on throughout the entire drift.

_To be continued…_


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage **

_Chapter Fifteen_

For the second time in a very short while, Akito found himself onboard the RZ-1 without having a clue of where Kyosuke was taking him. He didn't even bother with asking since he already knew the answer:

'It's a surprise,' Kyosuke had said when the young man had called Akito asking him to wait outside the school where Akito had just finished his third and last year of junior high.

A few minutes later, Akito saw the huge education complex where the Takahashi family had always sent their kids to study.

'This is your ex-school,' he commented.

'Yep,' Kyosuke replied.

'Kyosuke, you only graduated last year. Are you missing it so much?' Akito asked with a sarcastic smirk.

'Nope, I've got a surprise for you,' he answered.

'I know, you've told me four times already,' Akito said a tad on the annoyed side.

'There,' Kyosuke said pointing at the car park where he was already parking his Mazda.

Akito looked in the direction Kyosuke's finger was indicating to see a beautiful, white RZ-1 SF3Z series and standing next to it he saw a very smug looking Seisuke.

'What the heck…' Akito said climbing out of Kyosuke's car.

'Hey there!' Seisuke said seeing his friend and older brother walking towards him.

'When did you buy it?' Akito asked.

'About three weeks ago, I didn't want anyone to see it because Dad and Uncle Keisuke have been working on it, well, they've just helped me setting it up the way I wanted it,' Seisuke explained.

'But I thought you wanted a red car,' Akito commented.

'Nah, I saw this one when Dad and I went into the Mazda dealership and I don't know…I just fell in love with it.'

'I think this colour's way cooler,' Kyosuke said, 'now we'll be driving two Mazda with the same colours than the ones Dad and Uncle Keisuke used to have.'

'Are you going to dye your hair white now?' Akito asked.

'Nope, I like my hair black, thanks,' Seisuke said patting his carefully groomed hair.

'Pussy,' Kyosuke said shaking his bleached spikes proudly.

'They're amazing…I'm so jealous,' Akito commented looking at the two cars with his eyes full of admiration.

'Shut up,' Seisuke said, 'it's us who should be jealous!'

'Yeah, Uncle Keisuke told us yesterday.'

'About what?' Akito asked.

'About what he says,' Seisuke said shaking his head.

'About the F3 scout who came to see you win the race last weekend,' Kyosuke explained.

'Ah, that,' Akito said with such a dismissing tone that Seisuke smacked him on the back of his head.

'Ouch! Why did you do that for?' Akito complained.

'I can't believe you can be so calm!' Seisuke admonished him.

'Yeah, it's a huge deal, that guy was so impressed that he told Uncle Keisuke that if you keep it up, you could debut in the F3 championship as soon as next year!' Kyosuke said.

'You could start your professional career even before you finish high school!' Seisuke exclaimed.

'Yeah, well,' Akito said rubbing the spot where Seisuke had hit him, 'that's just a possibility, it's not certain or anything.'

'Akito, the fact that the scout took the bother to call Uncle Keisuke to talk about you is a really good sign,' Kyosuke explained.

'Yeah, it's us who are jealous,' Seisuke said.

'But I thought you guys weren't interested in going pro,' Akito complained.

'That's not entirely accurate,' Kyosuke said.

'What do you mean?'

'Well, I have every intention of trying to get a job in a racing team when I finish university, I'd like to become the Chief Engineer of a Formula One team one day,' Kyosuke explained.

'And I'm going to specialise in Sports Medicine so I also aim for a job in the racing industry, maybe working at one of the circuit's clinics,' Seisuke added.

'What about your parents' hospitals?' Akito asked.

'They won't need me for at least another twenty years, Mum and Dad want me to do whatever I want with my life until then,' Seisuke said.

'That's great,' Akito said then, as an afterthought, he added, 'can you imagine? In a few years time we could very well meet up at the F-1 paddock.'

All three young men sighed at the same time.

'That'd be fantastic,' Seisuke said.

'Anyway, let's get back to the present, are you ready?' Kyosuke asked his brother.

'Yep,' Seisuke replied.

'Ready for what?' Akito asked.

'That's the other surprise,' Kyosuke replied smiling.

'I've got my first battle, tonight, against a Mitsubishi X-3,' Seisuke said.

'What? Why didn't you tell me?' Akito complained.

'We're telling you now,' Kyosuke said.

'It's the first official race for the Golden Arrows,' Seisuke added, 'tonight at ten o'clock, Aniki, Kazuya, Junya and I are going to go to Mt Myogi. And you can come with us too, if you want.'

'Mt Myogi?' Akito asked.

'Yep, that's their home course, Aniki and I have decided to stick to the same rules the Red Suns followed, so we won't be racing in Mt Akagi unless it's a special race,' Seisuke explained.

'I see,' Akito said.

'Ah, Aniki, the third surprise is coming this way,' Seisuke commented.

'Yep,' Kyosuke said smiling.

Akito was about to ask what in the heck was going on now when he saw the love of his life walking towards them.

'Ryoko,' he said when the girl had reached them.

'A-Akito, I…I didn't know you'd be here…' she stammered.

'We're going to go,' Kyosuke said grabbing Seisuke's arm and literally dragging him away towards their cars.

'I didn't know I'd be here either,' Akito said feeling nervous all of a sudden.

'I think we've already had this conversation,' Ryoko said laughing softly.

'Yeah, I think we have,' Akito replied smiling as he scratched the back of his head.

'Er…well…' Ryoko said.

'Are you skating again?' Akito asked pointing at the bag Ryoko was carrying.

'Yeah, I only started two weeks ago. I'm still far from being as fit as I used to be but.'

'That's good, I'd love to see you skate again,' Akito said before he could stop himself.

'Really? What a coincidence,' Ryoko said, 'maybe you didn't know but in about an hour or so the team has prepared a show to celebrate the end of the academic year and, well, if you don't have anything else to do.'

'Sure, I'll go to watch your show,' Akito said.

'O-okay,' Ryoko stammered, 'I'll see you later then.'

'Yeah,' Akito said.

He stood there staring at her as she walked towards the ice rink entrance.

'I'd say mission accomplished,' Kyosuke said as he and his younger brother walked back to where Akito was.

'We're so good, Aniki,' Seisuke replied.

'Please, do not tell me you planned all of this,' Akito said.

'Okay, we won't tell you,' Seisuke said looking annoyingly serious.

'Guys…'

'Hey, don't get mad, it's just that the poor thing's been trying to figure out how to invite you to her gala and we've decided to give her a hand,' Kyosuke explained.

'Yeah, you don't want to live with Ryoko when she's so miserable.'

'She's miserable?' Akito asked frowning worriedly making both Takahashi brothers give him a knowing look.

'What do you expect? She's been a total moron,' Seisuke said.

'Hey, she's not a moron,' Akito said defensively.

'Anyway, let's go for a drive,' Kyosuke suggested.

'Yeah, I'll show you what my baby can do,' Seisuke said pushing Akito towards his new car.

'I have to be here in less than an hour,' Akito reminded him making Seisuke snort loudly.

'With this baby we can go to Tokyo and come back in less than that.'

'Seisuke, it's a car, not a freaking plane,' Akito said as he climbed into the passenger seat.

'You'll pay for that,' Seisuke said to Akito then, talking to the steering wheel, he said, 'just ignore him, he's just a kid who doesn't even have his license.'

'Oi!' Akito complained making Seisuke laugh.

Soon, Akito wished he'd kept his mouth firmly shut for, as they drove down Mt Akagi, he realised the reason why Seisuke seemed to be so confident regarding his car's potential.

'Wow,' he gasped after the umpteenth time Seisuke took the car through a corner, drifting the whole way so fast that everything around him just became a shapeless blur.

'Yeah, you like that, don't you?' Seisuke said and Akito wasn't sure whether the youngest of the Takahashi brothers was talking to him or to his SF3Z.

It was rather curious to see that, whereas Kyosuke's driving style was very similar to that of his father, Seisuke's was just as aggressive as the way Keisuke Takahashi drove. The thing was that, when it came to the way the looked, Kyosuke was like a younger version of his uncle whereas Seisuke had clearly taken his looks after his father.

Essentially, seeing both brothers' driving style was like watching Ryosuke drive Keisuke-style and vice versa.

Not even forty minutes later, both RZ-1's were back at their spots of the school's car park.

'What do you think?' Kyosuke asked Akito looking at Seisuke's car.

'It's great, it's incredibly fast,' Akito replied.

'You haven't seen anything yet, wait until tonight,' Seisuke commented.

'I'm sure it'll be quite the show,' Akito said.

'Speaking of which, shall we go to see our baby cousin's back on her element?' Kyosuke asked.

'Yeah, let's go,' Akito replied.

The ice rink was packed full of people and it was lucky that that the Takahashi had saved them three seats.

'I had the impression we'd see you here,' Kyoko said smiling at Akito as he sat down sandwiched between Kyosuke and Seisuke.

'Yeah, well…' he just said feeling a bit awkward.

'Shush, it's starting,' Akiko Takahashi said.

They all watched as several members of the team performed their programs and, just as Akito was beginning to get impatient, a voice through the speaker announced:

'Ladies and gentlemen, after having successfully recovered from her injury, please put your hands together for the Middle School Team's captain Takahashi Ryoko.'

Ryoko, looking a lot shyer than usual, stepped onto the ice and Akito felt his heart skip a beat. She was breathtakingly beautiful and that little black and white number she was wearing made Akito's temperature raise a couple of degrees.

He then saw her stop in the middle of the rink as the lights became dimmer as a beautiful piece of classic music started playing then, Ryoko started skating following its rhythm with all the grace and elegance that characterised her style.

'That's my baby, you know?' he heard Kyoko comment to a perfect stranger who happened to be sitting next to her.

'You should be proud of her,' the woman said.

'We are,' Keisuke replied.

Akito went back to pay his utmost attention to Ryoko as the girl started doing a series of double and triple loops. She then began a seemingly endless spin which concluded itself with a beautifully executed swan. So much for being out of shape, Akito thought to himself wondering what she would do when she'd be fit once more.

Then, just as everyone thought that her exercise was about to finish, she did what no one expected her to do: she went around the rink for a couple of laps, picking up speed as she did so and then, gliding towards the centre, she did a triple axle followed by a double loop.

The whole public was astonished as Akito himself felt his jaw drop leaving him open mouthed.

After this huge accomplishment, Ryoko finished her program by bowing towards the side of the grandstand where Akito and the Takahashi family were sitting and the boy felt as though as he had just fallen in love with Ryoko all over again.

'Earth to Akito, do you copy?' he heard Seisuke say.

'Yeah, wow.'

'Uh-huh, let's go, now,' Seisuke said grabbing Akito's arm as though as he thought that his friend could not stand up on his own.

They walked downstairs so the whole family could meet up with Ryoko and, after Kyoko and Keisuke had hugged their daughter, repeating about fifteen times how proud of her they were, Ryoko was finally able to speak to Akito.

'So, what did you think?'

'What did I think? Ryoko, you were fantastic!' Akito exclaimed.

'It was just a short program but I'm hoping to get back in shape soon so I can apply for the regional team,' she said getting all flustered and looking cuter than ever.

'I'm sure you'll get in it no problem,' Akito said.

'Well, you know, I really hope that, this time, I'll be able to make it to the national championship,' Ryoko added.

'I'm sure you will,' Akito replied.

'Listen,' Ryoko whispered as she took Akito by his arm so they could separate themselves from the rest of the Takahashi.

'Yes?' Akito asked in an equally low tone of voice.

'I know that you probably don't think it's a good idea but, if you could, maybe, in the future, you know…'

Akito looked at her as she bit her lower lip, looking unsure as to whether she should carry on or not.

'What is it?' he asked her.

'Well, maybe, someday, you may want to consider giving a silly little girl a second chance.'

'Ryoko…'

'I mean, I don't expect an answer now, of course and if you said yes then I would promise you that this time we'd do things your way and I wouldn't ask you to choose between me and your racing ever again. I would even be happy if you could see me for just a few minutes a week.'

'Ryoko,' he repeated now with a normal tone of voice.

'I know…I'm asking too much, aren't I?' she said looking horribly disappointed.

'No, you're not,' he said and that startled Ryoko.

'I'm not?' she asked with a very small voice.

'Let's do this, come with us to watch Seisuke's race. I'll give you my answer after that, okay?'

'Sure,' Ryoko said nodding.

_To be continued…_


	17. Chapter Sixteen

Disclaimer: the Kizuna Ethridge name and character belongs to fellow Initial D fanfic author SouthSideSlider.

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Chapter Sixteen_

Mount Myogi was well known among the residents of the Gunma prefecture for its rocks weathered into fantastic forms and it was noted as one of the most popular places to go hiking in the country. However, none of the people who were currently there gave a damn about the natural beauty of the place.

They were there to see the debut race of Seisuke Takahashi, number two driver of the newly formed Golden Arrows of Mt Akagi.

'Hey, you're okay?' Kyosuke asked his brother as Seisuke strapped himself onto the bucket seat installed in his white, brand new SF3Z.

'Yeah, don't worry, it'll be a walk in the park,' Seisuke replied smiling confidently.

'Hey, don't…'

'…underestimate the opponent,' Seisuke said, 'I know Aniki, I know…'

'Good, go and make me proud,' Kyosuke said.

'You really freak me out sometimes,' Seisuke said and, smirking, he closed the window and started getting ready for the race.

Seisuke looked at the car parked at his left hand side: the dark blue Mitsubishi X-3 looked bigger and stood higher than the Mazda RZ-1 and, being the third version of the Lancer Evolution X, its body still retained some of the square-ish look which was the trademark of all Mitsubishi EVOs.

He'd been shocked to find out that its driver was none other than Nakazato Takeshi's twenty year old nephew Taro. The world was really a small place, Seisuke thought as he recalled his uncle telling him about a time when, many years ago and in this very same course, he had battled with Nakazato Takeshi. Now both men's nephews were going to take over the challenge and Seisuke hoped that the outcome of this race would be the same than that of his uncle's.

Shortly after, one of the members of Nakazato's team, the Myogi Devils, stood in front of the two cars, getting ready to shout the countdown: 'FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE, GO!'

'This is amazing,' Ryoko whispered to a very concentrated looking Akito.

'Yes it is,' Akito whispered back stealing a quick look at the girl smiling as he saw exactly what he'd hoped he'd see: Ryoko was actually enjoying herself. Maybe she would get hooked and would ask him to take her to every single race.

As both cars took off, Ryoko started cheering her cousin Seisuke along with Akito and Kyosuke and the rest of the people who, for one reason or another, supported the white RZ-1.

'That's good,' Kyosuke commented as he saw that, just before the first corner, Seisuke had already overtaken the X-3.

'Why?' Akito asked.

'You know Seisuke, after what you did to him when he was seven, he's been training himself extremely hard to learn how to defend himself.'

'Right, I see..'

'Can you explain it to me?' Ryoko asked.

'Yes, essentially, if he's ahead, there's no hope in hell for the Mitsubishi to overtake him, is there?' Akito said looking from Ryoko to Kyosuke.

'Nope, I think the race's been decided already, unless…'

'Unless?' both Akito and Ryoko asked.

'Unless Nakazato Taro is an ace when it comes to attacking,' Kyosuke said.

'Let's hope he's not,' Ryoko said with such a worried expression that both Kyosuke and Akito burst out laughing making the girl look slightly upset.

'Sorry Ryoko but, for someone who's not into racing, you sure have the right spirit,' Kyosuke explained putting a hand on her cousin's shoulder.

'Well, he may be a bit annoying sometimes, but Seisuke's my cousin,' she said, clearly trying to justify herself.

'Yeah, right, as if we're buying that, eh, Akito?'

Akito just looked at Ryoko and smiling at her, he said:

'Come on, let's find out what's going on...'

'How do we do that?' she asked.

'With this,' Kyosuke said producing his mobile phone: a very expensive looking, latest model one. Pressing a button he activated its radio mode and, tuning it to the correct frequency, they started hearing as the people in the different corners were explaining what was happening in their sector:

Seisuke was still ahead and, by the looks of it, there would be no way Nakazato would pass him.

In fact, the youngest of the Takahashi brothers felt that everything was going exactly as planned. He had managed to overtake the X-3 right when he had to and now all he had to do was to put as much distance as possible between the Mitsubishi and his Mazda.

Then, just as they had covered half of the course's distance, he saw something entering the road, stopping right in the middle of it.

'Shit!' Seisuke shouted as he slammed his brakes as hard as he could.

He managed to stop not even half a meter away from a petrified looking dog then, as Seisuke was trying to figure out what to do, he saw as the X-3 caught up with him first then, with a swift move, it overtook Seisuke's Mazda with so little effort that it was almost absurd.

'What the hell?' Seisuke exclaimed, noticing that the dog had already ran to the other side of the road, probably terrified by the speeding Mitsubishi.

Flooring the accelerator, he started the difficult task of catching up with Nakazato's car which was rapidly disappearing in the distance.

'Shit,' Seisuke whispered, deciding that, if he lost this race for a reason as stupid as that, dogs would be a new entry in his blacklist.

'Calm down, Seisuke,' he said to himself. He still hadn't lost and he did have a huge advantage: his car was a lot more powerful than the X-3 and they were going uphill.

Driving as though as the devil himself was behind him, Seisuke started closing up on the Mitsubishi and, before Nakazato Taro could even think of what had happened, Seisuke found himself sticking the RZ-1's front bumper so close to the rear of the Mitsubishi that he could even see a very small scratch the car's black paintwork had.

'Knock, knock,' Seisuke said smiling in a very evil way then, as he had done hundreds of times back at the centre, he waited patiently for a moment when he could strike in the most efficient way.

'The downhill…' he muttered remembering that right at the end of the course, before the finish line, there was a small slope that went downhill. He also remembered that it was at that precise point where his uncle had beaten Takeshi. Well, there wasn't any other, more poetic way to finish this race, was there?

Soon, as Seisuke followed the Mitsubishi through a corner he saw, just a few metres away from both cars, the top of the hill from which the descent started.

'Come on SF, don't disappoint me,' he said tapping the shifter with his index finger.

It was probably because Nakazato Taro had let his guard down thinking that, at this point of the race, there was no way Seisuke could do anything to win and maybe for this reason, passing the Mitsubishi turned out to be ridiculously easy:

Seisuke detached itself from the back of the X-3, then, turning towards the right, he placed himself right at the inside of the corner just before the downhill and, flooring the accelerator, he overtook Nakazato's car using the extra speed the gravity of the descent offered.

After that, he just had to do what he did best: block the opponent.

The rest, as he had told his brother at the beginning of the race, ended up being just a walk in the park.

'He's won!' Kyosuke shouted as he heard the report from the finish line.

'YES!' Akito shouted jumping up punching the air with his fist.

'He's won? Really?' Ryoko asked biting her lower lip in such a cute way that Akito couldn't resist: he grabbed her by her shoulders and bending down, he kissed her.

'Yes, he's won!' Akito exclaimed happily.

'Akito, you've just kissed me,' Ryoko said looking completely astonished.

Akito looked at her and, getting serious, he said:

'Well, I think that should make my answer pretty clear.'

Ryoko's eyes became shinier than usual as a couple of tears started gathering up there.

'Hey, I thought that's what you wanted,' Akito said frowning.

'Yes, it is,' she whispered.

'Then, don't cry, okay? I hate it when you cry, it makes me feel this small,' Akito said putting his thumb and index less than a centimetre apart.

'Okay, I won't cry if you kiss me again,' Ryoko said with a cheeky grin which made her look a lot like her father.

Akito didn't need to be asked twice.

'Hey, you two, get some room,' Kyosuke said complaining.

'Shut up,' Ryoko said as she snuggled herself to Akito who, looking over her head, smiled apologetically at Kyosuke.

After a few instants, Ryoko looked up at Akito and said:

'I was serious earlier on at the ice rink: I really want this time to be different.'

'So do I,' Akito said honestly.

'I now know how you feel about racing and since I feel pretty much the same way about ice skating, well, I think we can reach a compromise which will make us both happy.'

'Yeah, I'm sure of that too,' Akito said.

'Okay, to begin with, I'd love to watch these races more often if you think it's okay for me to come with you guys.'

'Sure,' Akito said happy to see that his plan had actually worked.

'Also, if you want, I can teach you to ice skate.'

'No, no, I don't think so,' Akito said pulling himself apart from her.

'Why not?' she asked him looking a bit disappointed.

'Because I tried once and it scared the shit out of me,' Akito said.

'What?'

'Yeah, those skates are evil, they go way too fast,' Akito replied.

'Akito, you drive karts and cars at a speed that gives me goose bumps.'

'Yeah, but you can always control them,' Akito countered.

'You can do the same with the skates, you know?' Ryoko said looking at him so sweetly that Akito had to kiss her again.

'Okay, you teach me to skate, I teach you to drive the karts, deal?'

'Deal,' she said and then she kissed him.

'Yeah, guys, just pretend I'm not here, okay?' Kyosuke said sarcastically.

Both Ryoko and Akito were going to reply when they saw the white RZ-1 coming to a stop next to them.

'Hey Aniki!' he said running towards his brother.

'Congratulations,' Kyosuke said giving a one armed hug to Seisuke.

'Well done mate,' Kazuya added while his cousin Junya just nodded in approval.

'Yeah, well done,' Taro said walking towards them, 'that dog really made things interesting.'

'Interesting is not the word I'd use,' Seisuke countered.

'You got freaked out by the dog and I got freaked out seeing you there in the middle of the road,' Taro said.

'Okay, we're equal,' Seisuke conceded.

'Nope, you're much better than I am, but don't fear, I'm going to train myself really hard and one of these days, I'll ask you for a rematch,' Taro replied.

'Sure thing, whenever you want, the Golden Arrows are always ready,' Kyosuke replied instead of his brother.

'I think you guys are going to be pretty scary once you get organised,' Taro commented then, giving them a quick wave with his hand, he said, 'I'll see you around.'

'So, I see that you two are back together,' Seisuke observed seeing the way Akito had his arm around Ryoko's shoulders.

'Yep,' Akito said.

'Well, this time, baby cousin, try not to make him collapse again, okay?'

Ryoko just nodded while frowning for she still felt very guilty about that.

'Don't worry, she won't,' Akito assured his friend.

'Sorry, am I interrupting?' they heard someone else say.

'No, what's up?' Kyosuke said looking at the newcomer: a beautiful, rather tall girl around Kyosuke's same age, whose naturally dark blond hair and smoky grey eyes made it very clear that she wasn't one hundred percent Japanese.

'I'm Kizuna Ethridge. I'm looking for Takahashi Kyosuke, the founder of the Golden Arrows, is that you?'

'Yes, that's me. What can I do for you?' Kyosuke asked finding the girl's accent to be quite attractive.

'I just moved back to Japan from the US and I'm looking for a team who are open to welcome new members, I heard that you've just set yours up.'

'What do you drive?' Kyosuke said and he saw as the girl bit her lip while frowning.

'It's a very old car but…'

'Hey, our team doesn't have anything against old cars,' Kyosuke said reassuringly.

'Right, well, that's my baby over there,' she said pointing at a dark grey Nissan 350Z Z33.

'Wow, that's a 35th Anniversary Edition, isn't it?' Kyosuke asked after he'd stared at the car for a short while.

'Yeah, it's sixteen years old, it used to belong to my father,' she explained, 'but it's in excellent condition.'

'It's a beautiful machine,' Kyosuke commented and, for some reason, that made the girl smile happily.

'Okay, so, when can I take the test?' Kizuna asked.

'Test?' Kyosuke asked back.

'Well, don't you guys test your potential members?' she asked looking suddenly confused.

Kyosuke shook his head and, sounding a bit embarrassed, he replied:

'We're not that well organised, we don't even have the stickers yet.'

'Oh, I think I can survive without the stickers,' she said laughing softly making Kyosuke look even more self-conscious.

'Alright, how does next Saturday, nine pm at the top of Mt Akagi sound?' he said, trying to recover his composure.

'Sounds like a date,' she replied clearly not realising what she'd just said.

Kyosuke cleared his throat and said:

'Okay, whatever suits you.'

Now, it was Kizuna's turn to look embarrassed as she said:

'Alright, I'll be there.'

'Good, I'll see you then,' Kyosuke replied.

Then, as Kizuna walked back to her Nissan, Seisuke started walking towards his older brother and pretending to be wiping an imaginary tear from his eye, he said:

'Aniki, I'm moved, to think I was beginning to lose hope…'

'What are you talking about?' Kyosuke asked.

'You know, I was starting to think you were asexual or something,' Seisuke said making Akito and Kazuya snort loudly while Ryoko just pretended to interest herself in her fingernails.

'What do you mean by that?' Kyosuke asked.

'No offence or anything Aniki, but this is the first time I see you flirting with a girl,' Seisuke explained, taking a couple of steps backwards, just in case.

'I was NOT flirting with that girl,' Kyosuke said defensively.

'Yes you were,' Seisuke said looking at Akito and Kazuya for support, 'he was flirting, wasn't he?'

'Yeah, definitely,' they both said nodding.

'Oh, piss off, all of you,' Kyosuke said then, hoping to get back at Seisuke, he said, 'you know, you should get back together with Kaori, at least you'd leave me alone for a bit.'

'I'll have you to know that I called her on the way down and to celebrate my first win, we're going to the cinema tomorrow,' Seisuke replied and with that, he started walking back to his car, leaving his Golden Arrows team mates, Akito and Ryoko standing there, open-mouthed, unable to believe their ears.

_To be concluded…_


	18. Epilogue

**Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage**

_Epilogue_

Halloween, 2023.

Akito stared at the ten days old piece of plastic he had in his hands still unable to believe that after waiting impatiently for so many years, he was finally an independent man: he had his driving license.

Putting it carefully inside his wallet, he took his new car's keys and grabbing his denim jacket, he walked out of his room to go downstairs.

'You're going then,' Takumi said seeing his son stepping into the living room.

'Yep,' Akito said.

'Be careful, okay?' Natsuki said looking a bit worried.

'Mum, I always am, don't worry,' he reassured her for he knew that the poor woman had a really hard time watching him every time he got onboard his car for the GP2 races.

Things had turned out pretty well for him in these past three years: he'd gone from winning the Japanese Karting Championship twice by age sixteen to race in the Japanese F3 championship that same year, getting the 'Rookie of the Year' award and winning the championship less than twelve months later. He then moved up to work as a test driver for a GP2 team.

Then at the third round of the GP2 championship and probably due to a large dose of the famous Fujiwara luck, one of the two race drivers had left the team due to personal reasons allowing Akito to make his GP2 racing debut at the tender age of seventeen in the famous circuit of Monaco.

Soon after that, he'd managed to score his very first GP2 victory in Monza, several weeks before he was legally able to drive a normal car. Naturally, this victory had secured Akito a race seat for the following year too.

'Let's go,' Akito said to his girlfriend Ryoko, who up to then had been talking about ice skating with Akito's ten year old sister.

'See you later,' Ryoko said to her future in-laws bowing her head in a very elegant manner.

They walked out of the house and made their way to the brand new Toyota V-86 AE86V, a special edition of the V40A, made to mark the fortieth anniversary of the production of the first AE86 unit. The only differences between the Vera and the V-86 were its layout and its headlights: whereas the V40A was an AWD and had the same headlights than the Celica Sports M; the AE86V, just as its predecessor, the AE86, had an FR layout and a set of retractable headlights. For the rest including the platform on which they were build, both Vera and the V-86 were pretty much identical.

The five weeks old car had originally been white but, as requested by Akito, Iketani and Itsuki had repainted it copying the pattern of Takumi's infamous AE86.

'Should I take my car?' Ryoko asked pointing at the small red convertible parked next to the Toyota.

'Are you saying you don't think my car's going to make it to the end of the race in one piece?' Akito asked raising his eyebrows.

'NO! And don't even joke about that!' Ryoko admonished him.

'Then forget it, you'll be coming back here anyway, won't you?' he said and as she nodded, Ryoko blushed in a way that made her face look even more beautiful.

Then, as they got in the car, Akito asked:

'Ryoko, who are you going to be rooting for?'

'You, of course,' Ryoko said as she fastened her seatbelt.

'Ryoko, Kyosuke's your cousin, maybe you should root for him…'

'Why? You're my boyfriend and besides, he already has Kizuna supporting him,' she said referring to Kyosuke's half-American girlfriend.

'Yeah, that's right,' Akito said turning on the engine of his car. His car. He loved thinking that and saying it aloud almost as much as he enjoyed hearing the racing engine purring under the bonnet.

As usual, he had the pleasure to see that Ryoko was having the time of her life while he drifted through every single corner of the course. He also noticed that the galleries were packed with people, all of them there to see the Golden Arrows leader battling against a GP2 professional racer.

This was probably the race everyone had been waiting for the whole year and there was so much tension in the air that one could almost grasp it.

When Akito and Ryoko made it to Mt Akina's top, they found Kyosuke and the rest of the Golden Arrows already there, waiting for them.

'Wow!' Kyosuke said seeing Akito's ride, 'where in the hell did you get this monster from? Do you know they've only made four hundred of them?'

'My grandfather got it from one of his contacts,' Akito explained, 'but I paid for it,' he felt the need to specify.

'His contacts? Which kind of contacts does he have?' Seisuke asked joining in the conversation.

'I haven't got a clue but if you find out, please let me know,' Akito replied smirking.

'Yeah, well, typical of your grandfather,' Kyosuke said laughing softly staring at Akito's V-86 with his eyes full of admiration.

'I can't believe this day has finally arrived,' Akito said most eager to find out if, at long last, he would earn himself the right to be a member of the Golden Arrows.

Kyosuke's team had been undefeated in its three years of existence and nowadays, it was formed by over a dozen extremely skilled drivers, with Kyosuke, Seisuke and, of course Kizuna being their top three drivers.

'Me neither,' Kyosuke said looking equally excited for, even though this was probably the race which would see the end of his winning streak, he still couldn't help but to look forward to having Akito join his team.

'Take it easy, hey Mr Pro,' Seisuke said punching Akito's shoulder playfully.

'Hey, I'm not the one who hasn't lost a street race in three years,' Akito commented.

'No, you're the one who's won a GP2 race before getting the driving license,' Seisuke countered.

'Yeah but you guys already are street racers, I'm just trying to become one,' Akito said albeit he knew perfectly well that with Akina being his home turf no one, except his father and his grandfather, knew this course better than he did.

'Hey guys, are you going to be talking all night or what?' Kizuna said getting visibly impatient.

'You're right,' Kyosuke said, 'let's get started,' with this, he kissed Kizuna then walked towards his RZ-1.

'Be careful, okay?' Ryoko said after Akito had kissed her.

'I'll be back before you have time to miss me,' Akito said with a grin.

A few minutes later, the panda coloured Toyota V-86 was lined up next to the yellow RZ-1 as they waited for Seisuke to finish the countdown. Then, hearing the 'go', both cars took off at a staggering speed.

Just as Akito had foreseen, Kyosuke made him go ahead and very soon Akito found himself fighting as he tried, in vain, to put as much distance as possible between his AE86V and Kyosuke's SF3Z. The eighteen year old had the distinct impression that Kyosuke could actually catch up with him anytime he wanted.

'The bastard's playing with me,' Akito whispered to himself as he made his Toyota fly through a corner, making the car drift at the suicidal speed of one hundred and forty kilometres an hour.

Soon, and thanks to his professional racer's attitude, Akito managed to forget about his lifelong friendship with Kyosuke and, setting his jaw, he started racing seriously.

'Fuck, he's getting serious,' Kyosuke said seeing the way Akito's driving style had suddenly changed.

Then, the oldest of the Takahashi brothers decided it was time to start pushing it too and, within two corners, he attached his Mazda's front bumper to the Toyota's rear one.

Now he just needed to stay like this until they made it to the five consecutive hairpins.

Akito, on the other hand, didn't make it easy for Kyosuke to keep up with him and doing what he'd learned in his years of training, he started changing his lines, doing his best to mess up with Kyosuke's driving as much as possible.

This finally did what Akito had been aiming for and, by the time they made it to the famous hairpins, Kyosuke started noticing that his tyres had lost a lot of their grip.

'Shit, I fell into his trap,' Kyosuke muttered as he fought to control his car as it entered the very first of the hairpins where, using the last of his tricks, he copied Akito and hooked his tyres into the gutter, using the same technique which had made Takumi so famous.

Then, Kyosuke smiled and said:

'I've got you now…'

He followed the same pattern in the following three hairpins making Akito fall into a false sense of security and, right as the V-86 was taking the very last one, always hooking his tyres into the gutter, Kyosuke made his move:

He turned sharply towards the opposite way managing, by some sort of miracle, to overtake the Toyota.

'Yes!' Kyosuke shouted happily as his highly competitive nature made him forget that if he won this race, his team would not be able to welcome a professional racer among its numbers.

Then, and maybe due to the exact same overconfidence which had betrayed Akito, Kyosuke made his first and only mistake: he forgot that Akito Fujiwara, just like his father, didn't know how to give up.

Just as Kyosuke entered the spot of the course where the two lanes became three, Akito did something that just thinking about it would still freak the heck out of Kyosuke, even many years later.

Akito seemed to go way too wide, opening himself to the outside of the corner when, in an extremely brusque and dangerous manoeuvre, he crossed his AE86V right in front of the SF making Kyosuke veer towards the inside of the corner.

By the time Kyosuke managed to get his car back into its line, he saw Akito's V-86 right in front of him, widening the distance as he floored the accelerator.

'Fucking nutter,' Kyosuke whispered and even though his arms were still trembling slightly, he couldn't repress a smile then, as both cars came to a stop a few metres after the finish line, Kyosuke climbed out of his car, looked at Akito and said:

'You're mental, did you know that?'

'Yeah, people say that about me,' Akito said grinning.

Then, after taking something from his car, Kyosuke walked up to where Akito was standing and said:

'I think these are yours.'

Akito looked at what Kyosuke was giving him: two Golden Arrows stickers.

'Thanks,' he muttered as he took the two rectangular shaped labels with the words 'Golden Arrows' in black italic print crossed by the two golden arrows which gave the team its name.

'Well, you're one of us now,' Kyosuke said, 'put them on and let's drive back up: the guys will want to celebrate the fact that we've got a pro driving with us.'

Kyosuke was spot on and, the minute the Toyota showed up back at the summit with its Golden Arrows stickers stuck on both sides of its bodywork, the whole team started cheering making Kyosuke have very mixed feelings about the whole thing.

'Hey, since Akito's a member of our team now, technically speaking, we're still undefeated,' Seisuke said trying to make his brother feel a bit better.

'That's right and the way that crazy bastard drives that V-86 of his, I'm sure that we'll remain that way for a very, very long time,' Kyosuke replied.

The two brothers went to join their best friend congratulating him for having finally achieved what he'd been dreaming of his whole life.

Akito was so happy about it all that he almost forgot the fact that he still had to beat his father's twenty five year old downhill record.

_See you next stage..._


End file.
